


SubNautica Re-Submerged

by 1d8Damage



Category: Subnautica (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Bioluminescence, Blood and Injury, Character Death, Depictions of Illness, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Except for that one guy, F/M, Fluff, Graphic Description, Hurt/Comfort, Idiots in Love, Illness, Kharaa Bacterium (Subnautica), Minor Character Death, Mystery, Near Death Experiences, Nearly everyone is mentioned only, Not Canon Compliant, Original Characters - Freeform, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Romance, Suspense, Telepathy, There's some humour and funny parts, These two are just doing their best, They are determined to survive this death planet out of pure spite, They care for each other so much, Trauma, Which isn't much better really, a lot of near death experiences, later though, mutations, not entirely at least, oblivious idiots in love, slow-burn, sorta?
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-14
Updated: 2020-11-02
Packaged: 2021-03-06 20:27:22
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 32,689
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26461147
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/1d8Damage/pseuds/1d8Damage
Summary: Crashing ships, an ancient disease, alien tech, and an ocean world full of mysteries and dangerous creatures isn't something most would be prepared to face. Can't say that these two are ready for it either, but they have their skills, wits, and each other to rely on. What's the worst that could happen?
Relationships: Original Female Character/Original Male Character
Comments: 2
Kudos: 12





	1. Planet 4546B

**Author's Note:**

> Heyo! This is a cooperative work with AlcatrazDGold from fanfiction.net, I highly recommend you go check out his work! 
> 
> This work is largely for fun, and there likely won't be a regular updating schedule. That said, read and enjoy! Let us know what you think! I might add to the notes later, depends.

_The screen comes on, showing a medium shot of a Caucasian woman with red hair, freckles, and hazel eyes. The angle suggests the woman is holding the device in her lap._

_“I- uh… This is Annabel Day, supply depot manager. We’ve just landed on what appears to be a water-based planet after our life pod ejected from the Aurora. We don’t know what happened, exactly, I think there was some kind of hull breach. Must have been serious, we saw fire and explosions on the way down- there was no warning, I don’t think it was a meteor or solar flare, could have been an accident. Jenkins was probably playing with the engines again-”_

_A voice from off-screen interrupts. The woman, Annabel, turns to look towards the voice._

_“Really?”_

_“Well, he would!” She turns back to the device, “Our flotation device failed, but we didn’t sink far. There seem to be some floating masses in this area. Bird- Security Officer Williams is checking the fabricator, seeing what we have to work with. There are some creatures outside, they don’t sound friendly- can’t blame them, really. Once we have some idea of a plan, we’re gonna head out and see if there’s anything usable for us. I just hope we don’t get eaten or drown. There’s a lot that needs to be done” Annabel pauses to sigh, “Surviving out here isn’t going to be easy, this planet is an unknown, but we’ll manage. Just gotta take care of each other. That’s it for now, I guess, this is Annabel Day, signing off.”_

_The screen shakes a little before it goes black._

* * *

Panic. Chaos. Fear. 

That was all Officer Ryder ‘Birdy’ Williams could see as he watched the mass of bodies across the ship. 

“Everyone! Move to the life pods! This is a total evacuation of the ship!” Ryder shouted above all the commotion and chaos as people scrambled through the crisscrossing halls. People bashed through each other as they ran from various rooms. 

Birdy, as he was known to a certain someone, could only watch as his commands mostly went unheard by the panicking crew members of the ship. You’d think people would be more prepared for an evacuation like this. Trained even, but it seems Alterra skipped out on that educational course. 

The sound of an explosion boomed throughout the whole ship, rocking the floor people ran across. Everyone shook where they stood, some barely being able to keep their balance, whilst others tumbled and collapsed to the ground, dropping some personal belongings. 

His eyes narrowed, who gave a damn about personal items when your life was on the line?! 

A rumble rocked the ship once more, much more violently this time. The rumble didn’t stop either. The ship shook vigorously causing many to lose their footing once again. 

' _We must be breaching atmosphere… won’t be long before impact,'_ thought Birdy as he held himself strong, leaning against the wall and holding onto a door frame for support. Even then he was barely able to hold himself upright. 

“Lieutenant!” A voice called out, Birdy turned at the mention of his rank assuming, correctly, it was for him. He saw his CO close in on him, barely keeping his own footing as he helped others make it from one side of the hall to the other. 

“Get to the escapes pods! Leave the rest of the evac to me and the other officers.” His voice straining, barely heard over the chaos, and the sirens echoing throughout the ship. “We need as many people off this ship now! Chiefs orders!” 

“But sir, I can still assist with the-” 

“Cut the shit and get aboard an escape pod this instant! That’s an order from me now!” His CO cut him off before grabbing him by the shoulder and forcefully shoving him in the direction of the escape pods. “Move it!” 

Birdy couldn’t argue it, and so moved onward toward the life pods. He moved more swiftly than others, a small blessing from his training. Before he could go to the life pod bay, however, there was one person he had to find. 

He wouldn’t leave without her. 

* * *

Boo coughed as her side hit the wall, the world tilting so far that she practically had to run on the wall. Smoke filled her lungs and burned her throat, fire and broken pieces were everywhere she looked, screaming and yelling and sirens filled her ears. She couldn’t make sense of anything. Nothing, except the hand that held hers and dragged her along as they desperately looked for an empty lifepod. Her eyes darted from hatch to hatch, showing either damaged or empty spaces. 

The floor lurched and split in front of them. Boo yanked the hand as she practically threw herself backwards, saving her friend from falling through, but something else in the floor broke and part of it fell through as well. The pair slid down like it was a slide, and somehow avoided the wires and fire and shards of twisted metal, landed on the second floor.

She pushed up onto her knees, but her throat seized up- she needed air. She could breathe. Boo hacked and coughed, gasping for air and feeling like she was going to be sick. A bruising pressure on her arm pulled her up, and she stumbled along, knowing he would lead them to safety. Her vision blurred from smoke and tears, and the main lights off while red lights were flashing, making it even harder to see. 

Looking up, she saw someone open a hatch- a life pod! Before the person could climb in, the floor below them gave in, sparks and fire bellowing in their wake. No words were needed, the pair shot into a run, and dove for their only hope.

The pair fell inside, scrambling for the seats as the hatch door sealed shut and Birdy pushed the button. When they jettisoned, they looked up and watched as the Aurora burned. The hull was clearly damaged, it looked like something had torn through it, smaller fires and explosions were littered about the ship, from what she could see from the little window. 

Boo looked away as a larger explosion erupted from the ship, and for one peaceful, still moment, locked eyes with Birdy. Words bubbled up in her mind as emotions and thoughts and feelings surged, but the force of it choked her, and then they hit the atmosphere of the planet.

The thought of being clothes in one of those old tumble dryers sprang to mind as Boo clutched desperately to the safety bars. There was a horrible crunch-bang as something big hit them, and then they hit something else. Many times, like a skipping stone. When they finally stopped, Boo immediately looked to Birdy even as her vision swam. He looked as disorientated as she did, but there weren't any obvious signs of injury. Relief swept through her like a breath of fresh air, and she looked to the hatch- and that relief died a quick, painful death as adrenaline shot through her.

“We’re sinking.” It took a moment, but she realized it was her that spoke the words. “ _Shit_ \- we’re sinking!” She slammed the button and fell out of her seat, her eyes on the hatch as water covered it completely, and they began to fall deeper into the water. 

“The flotation device failed,” Birdy said as he stumbled to meet her at the ladder, “Must have been what hit us in atmo. Damn. We need to get out before we sink too far-” They both stumbled as the life pod hit something, and then they hit the floor and slid as it hit something else. When it settled, Boo had her arms wrapped around Birdy in what was probably a bruising grip, but Birdy also had his arms around her tightly. They waited a few seconds, but nothing else happened. The pair parted ways, slowly, unsure if that really was the end. At least the pod was right-side-up. 

Birdy and her shared a look, before he moved towards the ladder. Boo moved to the bench, to check out what supplies they had to work with. With a grunt, she pushed up the seating to reveal the storage compartment. Two bottles of water, two ration bars, two AE suits. They could work with this.

“How’s it looking out there?” She asked as she broke the ration bars into pieces. They could make these last for three days, maybe. It wouldn’t be comfortable, but it could work. Water was the big issue here, they would last a day, maybe two, with what they had. That would be the main priority right now; food and water.

“Kinda murky, but I can see that there is some kind of landmasses… floating?” Boo paused as she registered what he just said. 

“Floating… underwater?” She asked, looking up at him. 

“Uh… yeah. Like islands, but floating underwater- _Holy shit!_ ” Birdy shouted, jerking back and losing his grip on the ladder. A horrible, hissing screech coming from outside.

“What the flippity fuck was that?” She asked as she whirled around, moving to help Birdy up from where he landed. She looked up but didn’t see anything through the hatch, just more murky water.

Birdy wheezed out a laugh, “ _‘Flippity’?_ Really?” He laughed again, only to groan when she smacked him over the head.

“Yes really. What was that noise?” Boo asked again.

“It was… fuck. I don’t know. But it came right up to the glass. Didn’t look friendly.”

“Didn’t sound friendly either.” She sighed, sitting back and rubbing her temples. “Well, better to find out now than when we’re out there.” She tilted her head back and looked at him. “The first thing we need is water. Those rations will last us three, maybe four days, but the water won’t last two even if we ration it. After that, food and resources, whatever we can find. With any luck, we’ll be able to make some useful things and get out of here.”

The pair sighed as the list of jobs grew, made all the more difficult by them being underwater, on an unknown planet, with predators lurking just outside. It sounds so simple on paper, but something tells her that getting the basics are going to be complicated at best, and everything after? Even more so.

“Well, no time like the present. Let’s go say hi to the neighbours.” Birdy said, chipper and downright eager, as he stood and moved to put on one of the AE suits. Boo turned away to give him some privacy and looked up at the hatch. Knowing their luck, they’ll be smack bang in a nest of the things.

“Alright. Wait for me, we’ll go together.” She said, taking her turn to put on the spare suit.

“Like there’s another option?” He grinned at her, and Boo responded by sticking her tongue out at him and blew a raspberry at him. He laughed, and Boo felt lighter than zero gravity. With a smile she changed and, together, they entered the brave new world.

* * *

The day had been a busy, and hectic one. The pair had spent the day exploring, scavenging, crafting what they could with the daylight they had left. 

The waves could almost completely calm your mind, the gentle movements, and soft sounds, could so easily make you forget your situation. 

Almost. 

Boo and Birdy were still stranded on an unknown, uncharted, ocean planet. With little supplies, and no real idea on how to get off this water world, you’d think people would be far less hopeful. But Birdy honestly wasn’t. Birdy couldn’t be. And he doubted Boo was either. Nervous, maybe. Perhaps even a little scared, but neither would lose hope. They were built stronger than that. 

They had each other to look out for after all. 

But they needed a game plan. Something to work toward for the coming days. This was real. It was survival out here, and the world surely wasn’t going to play nice. 

“How the hell do we find ourselves in situations like this Birdy?” Boo asked from her position next to him. They both lay there, floating atop the water, watching as the sun had long begun to set. A small moment of peace after such a hectic, chaotic, and hard days work. 

Her question caused him to smirk. “Usually we’re the ones causing trouble, but it seems this time trouble found us.” 

He didn’t need to look over to her, he knew his answer elicited a small smile from her. Plus the small, but amused, murmur of ‘Jackass’ kinda gave it away. 

“We really do need a plan.” She told him after a moment. 

“Don’t worry Boo, I’ll have one in no time. We’ll make it work, we always do.” His hand found hers as a way to reaffirm his statement. It was a welcomed feeling. His eyes drifted to the still blazing Aurora in the far distance. 

It felt like minutes passed, but in reality it was only a few seconds before Birdy moved. A thought springing to mind, and heart. 

“Let’s get back to the life pod.” He said as he righted himself into a proper swimming position. “I think I have a plan but I need to check again what the fabricator has in its database before I can come up with anything concrete.” 

Boo quickly followed suit, before staring at him. “Let’s hope your plan is better than some of your previous ones.” He could see her eyes narrow but also see the upward lift of her lips. 

“Cheeky…” Birdy thought to himself, “Look, some of those were completely out of my control. You know that.” 

Her grin only grew, “Let’s hope this one stays in your control,” she tilted her head from side to side, as if thinking for a moment, “Actually, that might not be much better.” Before he could even respond she disappeared below the waterline, heading for the life pod. 

Birdy could only smile and roll his eyes, she always did have a way of lightening the situation, more specifically, she could always lift his spirit. She would truly be the reason he doesn’t go insane on this planet. Birdy followed Boos example and dived below the waterline, heading toward the life pod. 

Inside the life pod, Birdy and Boo made some preparations. Birdy going through the database on the fabricator, whilst Boo seemed to be prepping her PDA to record another journal entry similar to how she had done earlier. 

Documenting the experience really isn’t a bad move, on the contrary, it was pretty smart. In case the worst were to happen, it gives people a chance to fully understand what’s happening here. A good call on her part. 

Now for his part. 

“Alright, so here’s the plan.” His words grabbing her attention, “We have the equipment we need to make for the Aurora tomorrow,” his words drew a worried frown from Boo but he continued, “We can have O2 tanks, flippers, and rebreathers ready by morning if I wait up early. We have knives, and our dive suits, so that’s a good start. With all that, and some time, we should be able to make it to the Aurora and out within the day. We scavenge the ship for parts and supplies, find and assist any possible survivors, and regroup outside the Aurora.” 

“Are you sure that’s the best move to make?” Boo questioned, “Wouldn’t it be better to set up somewhere? Maybe find an island? We have to look out for ourselves before going on the hunt for others.” 

Sound logic, but it didn’t seem to connect with Birdy. 

“I have to find the others, if there are other people out there then we need to group up with them. I can’t allow anymore to die.” It didn’t take a genius to figure out what Birdy was trying to do, but Boo knew immediately. 

“We could search for a landmass,” she reasoned with him, “maybe make a beacon for survivors to flock toward. We gather the supplies to help the wounded whilst we wait for others to arrive.” 

“We could, but that doesn’t help anyone who might be trapped on the Aurora. We both know the beating that ship took on reentry, we also know not everyone made it off the ship and into life pods.” His eyes focused on hers, “I have to try.” 

Boo could do nothing but sigh, “So be it Birdy, but let’s not spend the whole day there. We need to look after ourselves too ya know.” 

He knew deep down she was right, but his heart couldn’t ignore the possibility of others out there, crying out for help, only for nobody to come. 

It was only the end of the first day, and things were already a right pain in the heart. 

* * *

_Recording begins with Annabel sitting cross-legged on the floor, the device seemingly leaning against something, behind her is someone sleeping on the bench-seat of the life-pod. Her hair is damp and there are several scrapes and bruises, a wetsuit bunched around her waist, and her right arm is covered in bandages. She looks harried and tired._

_“Annabel Day, reporting in.” She sighs and runs her left hand through her hand, only to hit a knot and wince, “Day one is done. We didn’t venture far from the life pod, but we found plenty of scrap metal and a bunch of other stuff we can probably use. We made knives as a form of basic protection, very basic , which is good, we even found a place that has-” There is a pause as Annabel snickers, “- acid mushrooms. I’m not kidding, that’s what the PDA calls it! Hehe, gotta love the irony. But seriously, we harvested bags of those things for batteries and all that.”_

_The sleeping figure moves, and the woman turns slightly to place her uninjured hand on one of his legs. He settles down again. She turns back to the screen, keeping her voice low._

_“We found out that those things outside were, in fact, not friendly at all.” She lifts her injured arm slightly, “And they are mean little shits. We have the worst neighbours. I’m lucky I didn’t lose my arm. Birdy isn’t happy about it, but there’s not a lot to be happy about in the first place. We’re still alive, though, so that’s something. From what I’ve seen, this planet is pretty diverse- or, at least, this area is. The PDA says something about this being a giant crater, and there’s a bunch of biomes or environments or whatever. We landed in what we are cleverly calling the Underwater Islands, they’re kept afloat by these giant jellyfish-looking things but without the stingers.” Annabel sighs as she leans back against the bench seat, closing her eyes for a long moment._

_“There’s a lot, and we have no idea what it is. There is so much, I can’t report it all in one recording.” She opens her eyes and focuses on the camera, “So, to summarise. We nearly died, like, eight times and a lot of it was nearly drowning. We fixed up some pipelines so the life pod is getting air directly from the surface, so we won’t suffocate and have some form of shelter. We’ve gathered some resources, don’t know what they’re for yet, but we’ll keep whatever we find. Tomorrow we’ll head to the Aurora, see if there are any survivors and if there’s anything we can use. I know Birdy hopes to find people but… we don’t know what’s out here, or what will be waiting for us. I just want us both to make it back alive. Wish us luck, Annabel signing off. Goodnight.” Annabel leans forward and her hand moves towards the screen, after a moment, the screen goes black._


	2. Reap What You Sow

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fair warning, there is a death scene in this. Things get scary!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So. To summarise: Death Warning, it's kinda graphic so when you hear roaring, beware. There is some... emotional stuff, too. So be prepared for angst. Enjoy!

**Chapter 2 - Reap What You Sow**

_The screen activates, revealing the inside of a life pod. One could hear the sound of shuffling clothes, and the metal ‘clang’ of something heavy banging against a wall. It took a moment before the face of Birdy was seen, his eyes focused on the screen._

_“This is Security Officer Ryder Williams of the Aurora,” he began, the recording shaking slightly as he focused it upon his face. “I’ve decided since Bo- Annabel Day, my colleague, is keeping a log update of what happens to us, it seemed fitting that I have one as well. I’ll use this as a paper trail, keeping logs of our movements, plans, and important discoveries, as well as a personal log for my own thoughts on the situation.” The screen shook again as if it was sat in his lap, a bad angle, the screen barely capturing Birdy attaching an O2 tank to his back. “With that said, for my first journal entry, a small update is in order. There has been no sign of other survivors, as comms within the life pod were damaged on landing we can’t even attempt to call out to them. Our current objective is to search for other survivors, we plan to head to the Aurora and recon the area for any way to get inside. Whilst there we plan to retrieve supplies, find others on-board, and then search for a secure,” he paused, “or as secure as we can get,” he muttered before continuing as normal, “location to hunker down for the time being.”_

_“You ready to go?” A voice asked from off-screen, clearly the voice of Boo._

_Birdy looked up and gave her a nod, “Just a sec, I’ll wrap this up.” There was an inaudible response from the other life pod occupant before Birdy faced the screen once more. “We gather what materials we thought we’d need for the swim to the Aurora, rebreathers, 02 tanks, flippers, and we’re armed with our knives still. We should be in and out within the day all going well…” he sighed, “but when does it ever go well?” The screen caught the roll of his eyes, but still caught the hint of an amused smile._

_“This is Officer Williams, signing off.” The last thing the screen caught was a hand moving over its camera before it finally went black._

* * *

**Day 2:**

Boo had to admit to herself that this planet was surprisingly beautiful, despite the dangers of course. Beautiful clear seas, glorious blue skies, colorful and lively creatures, and dangerous but still, thus far the planet had been breathtaking. 

Boo scanned everything as she and Birdy swam toward the wreckage of the Aurora. They had begun their journey from their sunken life pod before cutting through the ‘Safe Shallows’ to get to the Aurora. Mentions of different kinds of flora and fauna, from peepers to coral, her PDA was lighting up with data on everything they came across, alerting her of every little detail. 

It did slow them down a bit when she got caught up in trying to catch and scan a small fish bobbing and weaving through the current, but no harm done to their objective. Hell, it was a good thing to collect data, information was important. Boos’ PDA told her everything she’d need to know, what fish could be consumed safely when cooked, what minerals were found in what coral, what could be collected and made into medicine, adding possible fabrication options for later. 

Most of these smaller faunas were passive, if not quite friendly as they swam close enough to the pair of survivors. Their encounters with the wildlife of the planet had been a mixed bag, sure they had the friendly Peepers and Bladderfish, names which made Boo giggle to herself given what these creatures looked like, there was even the Reefback! A large, floating whale-like mass that carries a diverse ecosystem on its back! It was amazing to see! 

However, then other creatures such as the Bonesharks and Stalkers, as she had dubbed the second one for how it followed its targets, balanced that out with how aggressive they were to almost everything. Openly attacking anything that wandered into its patrol range. It was unfortunate that Bonesharks patrolled the area in which their life pod had sunk, which they had named ‘Underwater Islands’. They had managed to get air to the pod with piping made from scraps, but it was still a pod stuff below the waves in dangerous waters. The two friends were clever enough to avoid them, it wasn’t difficult, but it was… annoying having to scurry around them just to get to their ‘safe’ life pod. 

Birdy mostly ignored the smaller ones, as they weren’t a threat. From Boos’ view, it was quite clear that he was watching out for threats and looking for other signs of human life, whether that be wreckage or otherwise. 

A faint smile made its way across her face, Birdy was always the protector. He was the big brother to people of similar age in their groups, and he was the ‘dad’ of the group when it came to watching over kids. 

Birdy, always the guardian of the group, and seeing him now, she knew that hadn’t changed in the slightest. She knew by how he always glanced back at her and her surroundings that he was watching over her, wanting to keep her safe. 

It tickled her heart to see him like that. A small flutter. 

It was the small things that meant the most to people. 

Watching Birdy ahead of her she saw how some of the fish interacted with him, swimming up close to him, around him. 

She saw him stop and turn to a peeper which swam up to him, surprising given the fact they could well be predators, and just stare at him. The peeper hovered there for a moment, Birdy reached out his hand to touch the creature. 

He clearly startled it since the peeper suddenly whipped forward and bounced off Birdy’s head before swimming off in a rush to who knows where. 

The sight of a peeper bashing heads with Birdy was amusing, she couldn’t help but giggle at the sight of him rubbing his head, staring off in the direction the peeper had gone. 

He turned back to her, and she could clearly see how his eyes rolled at her. He must have seen her amused expression, which only grew at his expression. Birdy turned back to his task of leading them toward the Aurora crash site, Boo still following behind. 

Her amusement and wonder continued for some time, more colourful and bright creatures and fish swam up to them almost as if they were just as curious about the pair as they were about the ecosystem of this strange world. Boos’ scanner was working over time, at one point she could well believe her scanners’ battery was going to die before they even arrived at the Aurora. 

As they swam along together, a tunnel in the sand caught her eye. Moving to investigate it for a moment out of curiosity, from the corner of her eye she saw Birdy pause briefly. She saw movement and figured he was moving closer to her, watching her in case something were to happen. 

Boo swam to the entrance of the tunnel, from her point of view there didn’t seem to be very much along the walls or floor. Although she did spot a few lumps of what could possible be materials to gather. 

Taking this as an opportunity for some free crafting material she swam deeper into the tunnel toward the clumps attached to the wall. 

Two hits with her knife was all it took to free the material inside it, as she grabbed it however she was startled by a sudden noise approaching her. 

She turned slightly and caught sight of a bloated fish swimming directly at her, the noise increasing in volume as it closed in. 

Her brain lagged for a second, attempting to process what it was attempting to do before her mind screamed at her to _move_! But she was too late to move.

Luckily for her, she felt a mass impact her body with a decent amount of force. A pair of arms wrapped around her body, dragging her through the water at surprising speed. 

Boo didn’t see what happened behind them but she heard it clear as day. _The damn fish exploded!_ Boo could feel her mind melt at attempting to understand how any creature could see _exploding_ as a survival tactic! 

The arms released her from its grasp and Boo turned to see Birdy, it was obvious that it had been him who grabbed her. He had been watching her back as she went to work after all. 

They faced one another, gazing at each other's expressions. Boo just looked so done with the situation after that little incident, whilst Birdys’ still held concern but she could make out the small traces of amusement across his face. 

Boo shot him a half-hearted glare, she knew damn well he’d find a way to tease her about this. She just knew it. In retaliation, she flicked the visor of his rebreather, smiling at his offended look.

Deciding now would be a good time to drop this and just head to the Aurora, Boo gestured toward the crash site with her arm. Birdy immediately caught on as he nodded in response. 

Boo paused, briefly closing her eyes, waiting for Birdy to take the lead. 

However, she felt something tap her head repeated, three times in total to be exact. Her eyes opened just in time to see Birdys’ arms returning to his side, she caught the teasing look in his eyes, the faintest smirk across his lips. 

He turned and began swimming toward the crash site in the distance. Boo remained motionless, her brain coming to terms with what he’d just done and in that moment she realized what he’d done! 

_Son of a bitch gave her head pats!_

* * *

Water near the back of the Aurora took a turn as they neared the ship, murky and slightly cloudy water, covered by the huge silhouette of the Aurora, the ocean seemed that bit less friendly than had been earlier. 

All the smaller, friendlier fauna from before had disappeared, leaving the water mostly empty and void. It was unsettling, eerie even. Even the sounds of the Reefbacks were gone. Going from colour and sound and so much moving around them to this utter lack of everything had the hairs rising on the back of his neck, goosebumps running up and down his body as he tried to see through the murky water. Something wasn’t right. Birdy wanted nothing more than to turn around and get out of here. But he couldn’t, not while lives were on the line.

They reached near the side of the Aurora, Birdy looked around at the pieces that scattered the area. Nothing but sand and rocks, except for the odd coral tube and sandshark, there wasn’t much else. He didn’t know whether or not to be thankful there were no bodies, or body pieces, floating about. 

He startled when he felt something touch his arm. He whirled around, but it was only Boo, even through the mask of the rebreather, he could see the concern on her face. He shook his head, and after a moment of watching him, she nodded and squeezed his arm lightly before swimming forward. She began scanning everything that she could, collecting scrap metal and a few other bits and pieces that might be useful. Birdy trailed after her, keeping a lookout as they moved steadily up towards the nose. Occasionally, she would hand him some scrap or whatever she found from the scattered supply crates, unable to carry anymore without risking being slowed down. He suspected once they had the upgrades available, she would be putting storage space on the seamoth’s when they get around to fabricating them.

Movement in the corner of his eye made him turn, and his heart soared at what he saw. Swimming quickly, he grabbed Boo by her shoulder and pointed to where the damaged life pod was, the person not far from it. Almost immediately, she dropped what she was holding and pushed him towards the person, clearly excited as he was at finding another living soul. 

When Birdy saw the person had dropped something, pushing it away from himself before swimming as fast as he could. What he was doing, Birdy didn’t know, but before he could get closer, something yanked him back. He turned to see Boo, and felt a burst of frustration at her, he turned again to try and get after the lone swimmer-

Then stopped when a deafening roar burst through the water. The lone swimmer picked up speed, only for another roar to rip through Birdy again- louder, closer. He could only watch, helpless, as a great serpentine shape appeared from the murky water and coalesced into a red and white monster. The beast opened the four appendages on its head as it closed in on the clearly panicking swimmer, and then- Oh god.

Even underwater, he could hear the screaming as two of those claw things _-mandibles_ , his brain dimly supplied, those were mandibles- pierced into the small humans' sides. With another deafening, victorious, horrible roar, the upper two descended, and the screaming stopped. There was so much red in the water, he couldn’t properly see what the monster was doing, but he could take a guess.

Something grabbed him and pulled. Panicked, he swung- but the water made it more of a push. He turned, but it was Boo. Just Boo. Moving back towards him and pulling him away again. Using her seaglide as best she could with only one hand, trying to move them, get them away from-

He choked on his oxygen and moved to grab his own seaglide. Just when they thought they had gotten away, they heard another roar- not from behind them, but to the side.

Birdy’s not sure how he managed it, but he managed to grab at Boo’s seaglide and push it down as he directed his own in the same direction. A long mass soared over them, close enough they got caught in the trailing water and rolled along its path. Once righted, he desperately looked for Boo. She wasn’t far from him, she turned to him the same moment another roar was heard. The monster was coming around for another charge. 

With no other plan, they crested the wall the beast had come from, finding themselves near the thrusters of the Aurora. They moved down, heading towards it as fast as they could, moving for the Aurora in the hopes that it would be able to shelter them. There was a horrible roar behind them, shaking the water, and in some unspoken signal, the pair parted ways. The beast charged between them, so close Birdy swore he felt one of the mandibles graze him. Looking back, he saw the beast had turned.

To his horror, he realised it had turned towards Boo.

It seemed Boo realised this as well, and shot upwards with her seaglide. The monster passed just under her, and with a twist, she went for the engines while the monster came round for another go. Roaring the entire way. Birdy moved closer to the wall, too far to help but wanting to be ready. He hated this, and moved towards the engines as well. Boo would be able to survive another pass, he was sure, and then they would be able to escape together. They would. They had to. Otherwise…

The image of a cloud of blood in the water entered his mind, and he threw it aside like it was fire. He needed to focus.

The snake-like monstrosity was picking up speed, heading straight for Boo, who was- _what was she doing!?_

She was just floating there, close to the wrecked engine but not enough to be safe from its reach. Why was she just staying there? Why wasn’t she moving?

Birdy screamed through his rebreather for her to move as the beast roared again, shaking the water around them, making his bones rattle and his insides shake. Just when he thought he would lose her, she moved. Down. Down so fast he almost missed what she had done. She had pushed off a piece of large debris sticking out of the engine. Which was directly in the monster's path, and it was too close, moving too fast, to avoid it.

With an almighty noise of metal, flesh, and bone, the monster crashed into the metal. It roared and screamed and thrashed, kicking up metal and sand alike, but he didn’t care. His eyes followed Boo, who disappeared briefly in the sand cloud, only to reappear trailing the bottom of the water and moving as quickly as her seaglide would allow. He followed, catching up by virtue of her slowing down to look behind her- searching for him, he guessed, as she changed her trajectory to align better with his own not long after. The noise and roaring continued, and the pair swam desperately away. Not daring to look back or risk slowing down. 

It was then their PDA’s warned them of needing oxygen, and they changed their angle so they moved to the surface, but still kept moving away from the beast. He didn’t know where they were going, but anywhere was better than back there. They kept near to the surface, not daring to go any deeper. After a few minutes, Birdy dared to glance behind them, and saw only blue. He let out a breath of air, bubbles swirling around him, and reached out for Boo. She looked to him, and he could still see the fear in her eyes, even as she looked around them and saw they were safe. At least, safe from the beast.

She pointed up, and he nodded. When they broke the surface, they took off their rebreathers enough to speak clearly, and just… looked at each other. 

“We…” Birdy tried, but words failed him as he thought back to the life pod and the lone swimmer and- He closed his eyes, trying to banish the image from his mind. But he couldn’t. It was replaying over and over and over again. 

“Our life pod. We should head back?” Boo asked, and he heaved a deep sigh. She was right, but the last thing he wanted to do was go back to the pod and sit around, letting his thoughts wander. He could do more work, start building, and planning, but he could guess that it wouldn’t help for long.

He looked around, trying to gauge how much time they had when something caught his eye. He narrowed his eyes as he stared, but unless his eyes were playing tricks on him, there was some kind of haze not too far from them.

“Hey, Boo, do you see that?” He asked. Boo gave him a look, but obliged and turned to where he pointed. After a few moments, she tilted her head one way, then the other. 

“Huh. That’s unexpected. Shall we check it out, then?” She asked, eager. He knew how she felt, it was something to explore, and take their minds of what just happened. It could be dangerous, but they had enough daylight that if they got there and turned out to be a bad idea, then they would be able to get back to the life pod without too much hassle. 

“Yeah. Sounds good.” With a renewed cheer, more so for Boo, the pair adorned their rebreathers and took off towards the anomaly. With any luck, it wouldn’t be another nightmare waiting to happen. Still, he felt better. Like he could handle anything, as long as Boo was with him. As long as they stuck together, they would be fine.

* * *

“You realise you’re gonna get sunburnt, right?”

“I don’t care. It’s been months since we’ve seen dry land.”

“It’s been two days.”

“Months.”

“Boo-”

“Space, Birdy. Space.”

“... I kind of feel like that’s cheating, but technically you’re not wrong.”

Boo was glad she was already on the ground because she was laughing so hard she might have fallen over. Birdy was rolling his eyes, but judging from his smile he was just as amused as she was, or so she hoped. He sat down next to her and tilted his head up towards the sun. Once Boo got her breath back, she closed her eyes and soaked up the warmth. 

Honestly, they needed this. With the morning they’ve had, especially with the Aurora, a little respite was sorely needed. After that near-miss and that terrifying swim where they were too scared to stop- and then Birdy noticed the weird haze in the distance, and when they got close enough, revealed an entire island. The moment they had climbed up onto dry land, they had collapsed, exhausted now that the adrenaline had finally faded.

She was dozing, close to straight-up falling asleep, when Birdy shook her lightly. She groaned but opened her eyes enough to squint up at him. He was smiling still, and clearly was enjoying himself. She stuck her tongue out at him, blowing a raspberry, before heaving herself up into a sitting position.

“So.” Boo sighed out, stretching her neck one way, enjoying the satisfying pop, then going the other way, the crack-pop of her joints relieving some of the tension in her body. “Head back to the lifepod, explore a little, or stay the night?” She asked, tilting her head up to observe the sky. It didn’t look like it would rain tonight, but not only was she aware of how quickly the weather could turn, she was _painfully_ aware that this was an alien planet. The laws of the weather could be completely different here than on any other earth-like planet.

“Let’s explore a little, if we find a suitable spot, we’ll stay the night. We still have a fair bit of daylight left, if we hurry, I say we can explore and head back before it gets dark.” He stood and offered his hand, which Boo gladly took. After a few moments of stretching, and placing down a beacon titled ‘Dry Land- Island’ just in the water, the pair began their little exploration of the island.

Boo could admit, the island was beautiful. The trees had this gorgeous blue glow, even in the daylight, and the pink flowers were pretty. Plenty of greenery and splashes of colour, with what looks like game trails cutting clear-winding paths through it all. That made her pause for a moment, as she stared at one of the paths leading off towards the shore, she tried to spot any sign of animals capable of making these pathways. No tracks, footprints, no fur or scales left behind, no scat piles, nothing. It’s possible these are waterways when rain falls, but then these tracks would be grooves, not packed dirt.

After another moment, she turned and caught up with Birdy, who was scanning everything that was within reach, something beginning to settle in her stomach. It then burst into sparks of an odd mix of hope-realisation-loss when she saw it, which shifted into anxiety and dread as she took in its derelict state.

“Birdy.” She reached out to grab his arm, and with her free hand, pointed up to one of the peaks, “There’s a habitat.” She said simply and found herself hoping there wouldn’t be a body or any human remains waiting for them.

She turned in time to see the expressions flicker across Birdy’s face as he took in the details and saw the same thing she did, although, there was something more there. It only surfaced for a few seconds but she saw the emotions cross his face. Boo didn’t call him out, but what she saw did give her cause for concern. She refocused her attention back to the structure. This habitat was old, they clearly weren’t the first humans to land on this planet, and judging by the state of the base… they hadn’t been here for a long, long time.

Wordlessly, they began the climb- only to be derailed when they crested the hill and spotted another habitat, this one half-buried and looked to have a small farm. Her ears picked up a skittering noise, which made an unpleasant shiver run up her spine and her shoulders to tense up. Oh, whatever was down there, she already hated it. She glanced over at Birdy and saw the cautious look on his face. Their eyes met for a moment, and they both pulled out their knives. 

More or less sliding down the hill, the pair entered the small clearing next to the half-buried building. She, maybe a little hastily, began to put her knife away to get out her scanner because that was a multi-purpose room and they needed that blueprint- only for something to come scuttling out of a broken glass segment and come straight for her!

Boo won’t deny the high-pitched scream she let out as instinct took over and, with a slight jump, punted that thing like one of those soccer champions from way back, sending the little fucker flying with a squeal. That, unfortunately, attracted more of them and- _oh dear god they can jump!_

Before it could reach her, however, a leg suddenly appeared. Crushing the crawly little shit between the habitat and the boot attached to the previously mentioned leg. Birdy leaned forward and threw his knife at the other one, skewering it right in the middle of the blue eye-looking thing on top of its body, killing it instantly.

He turned to her with a roguish grin, that still held something else behind it, and rested an arm on his still-raised leg. Boo felt her face begin to heat up at the image he presented, and at the easy way he had dispatched the, admittedly small, threat.

“That was an impressive kick.” He said idly, his grin growing as his eyes moved over her face. Her brain stalled as she tried to come up with some clever witticism or something to say in return.

“That was an impressive throw.” Well. It wasn’t her best. But it was far from her worst, so she’ll take it. Unfortunately, it seemed her blush wasn’t fading as Birdy continued to smile at her.

“You look a bit red there, you wouldn’t be embarrassed about that little squeak you let out, would you?” He said slyly and clearly not even attempting to hide it. Boo blinked a moment as she stared at him.

_‘Oh, if only you knew’_ She shook her head and lightly nudged his standing leg with her foot, causing him to flail a little as he lost his balance and had to stumble about to save it. Ruining the cool, suave image he had going and giving her a moment to kick-start her brain.

“It’s just the sun, must be getting a little warm,” She said, smiling at him innocently for a moment before turning to the habitat and began scanning, giving her some relief from his stupid, cute, face and letting her cool off a little.

“Uh-huh. Sure.” His tone told her he did not believe her for a moment, but as long as he thought her red face had been from embarrassment and not something else _entirely_ , then she was quite happy to let him think whatever he wanted.

* * *

_The recording began with a view of Birdy inside a building of some sort, rust and dirt covered the walls and ceiling within view of the screen, very little light as well. It must have been nightfall when this recording was happening. Birdy appeared to be seated judging by the posture he took, leaning forward slightly. His eyes aimed toward something off-screen. His eyes lingered on said something for some time before turning his attention to the screen._

_“We made it to the Aurora…” he trailed off for a moment, his voice low, before continuing. “Our plan… my plan didn’t go as I’d hoped.” He shifted slightly, eyes glancing off-screen again for a moment. With how low his tone was, and how his eyes kept shifting off-screen, it was obvious that he was watching over Boo as she slept, not wishing to disturb or wake her._

_“It’s been a rough day, for both of us.” Birdy looked away from Boo but didn’t turn toward the screen. “We found another survivor, if only briefly before they were eaten alive by some monstrous leviathan. Turns out the crash site drew in ‘leviathan class creatures’. I’m sure they were thrilled to eat so many bodies from the crash, hell, I bet anyone who tried to escape became a fucking meal for those things.” He paused, taking a breath, and lowered his tone once more. He had gotten slightly louder than expected as he recalled the details._

_“We had some close calls today, and to me, that’s unacceptable. Annabel was nearly caught by that leviathan more than once, although she was clever enough to avoid it, it’s not something I ever want her to deal with again.” His fists tightened when speaking of the beast that went after Boo, it was clear to anyone watching that if he had weapons on hand he’d hunt that damned thing down himself for even trying to hurt her._

_“This world is dangerous,” He began, his voice sounding more determined than before. As if he had found some new conviction. “I’m not letting this planet win, so I plan to focus my efforts on rescue missions, searching for signs of survivors, and securing precious materials Annabel and I might need. We’ll secure this location as a temporary base until we get something more concrete. Between this island and the life pod, we have two locations that we can call relatively safe. Tomorrow I plan to head out to areas surrounding the Aurora in search of other life pods, or at least any sign of human life.” His eyes trailed to Boo off-screen once more, “I won’t let anything happen to her either. I’ll deal with the problems we might face as they come.”_

_The screen shook as Birdy shifted his position, it appeared as though he was preparing to lay down. Likely to get some sleep if possible after the day they’ve had._

_“On a slightly more positive note, we’ve discovered this planet had human inhabitants before us. We found an island that had human structures on it, although severely decayed and eroded. It was clear that it’s been a good few years since anyone called this place home. My colleague and I decided to camp here for the night, and the land seems safer than the sea at the moment given what we’ve seen.” Birdy paused, a fond smile forming on his face, “Well, despite protests from my colleague about the ‘creepy crawlies’ that called this place their home before us.” A breathless chuckle escaped his lips as he recalled her reaction to his idea of staying here for the night, “You’d swear she thought I was betraying her trust or something. She stayed quite close to where I’m planning to sleep tonight.”_

_Birdy recomposed himself, “This is Officer Williams of the Aurora. Ending journal entry 2, end of day 2 on this planet.” The view shifted once more, this time to see Birdy laying on the ground fully._

_“Signing off.”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well. That was fun! Who had fun here? Haha... ha. Well, we spent about a week writing this chapter, and another week tweaking it and editing it here and there. Leave a kudos or a comment! Let us know what you think!


	3. Problems Float To The Surface

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some people have arguments, others have break downs when they keep nearly dying. Also evil squid is evil. And a squid. How dare.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yo this chapter is a goddamn rollercoaster. There's funny stuff, angst, some more near-death-experiences and... hoo boy. Just. Fair warning. Also this is the longest chapter to date! Yay!

_The video begins by showing Boo in what looks like a habitat room, sitting on a chair with a window visible in the background showing the blue sea of the planet. She looks haggard and harried, dark shadows under her eyes, which are unusually bright despite the dimness of the room. There are bruises and a few scrapes and healing cuts from what can be seen of the mid-shot view. The PDA seems to be set on a table, leaning against something to give it the angle it has. The room is quiet, and she seems to be alone._

_“This is Boo- Annabel- ugh, whatever. It has been…” Her hand nears the screen and moves about, taps are heard, before she pulls back. “Six days since the crash. Four since the Aurora venture. I haven’t had a chance to sit down and properly make a recording like this. I’ve made notes, some short records, but I’ve been busy making sure Birdy doesn’t get himself killed these last few days.” Her tone turns harsh near the end, before she heaves a sigh and rubs at her eyes before running her hands through her hair, which is down._

_“This is gonna be a long entry. After we got back from the island, we started building our base here. Just two rooms so far; one for sleeping and living, the other is largely storage and food production. The hallways are full of lockers too. We managed to fill those up pretty fast. Not… not long after, we got a warning about the Aurora’s drive cores.” Boo slowly runs a hand down her face as an exhausted look passes over her face, her hand resting at her neck as she turns to look away from the screen. Likely out another window, judging by the wavering lines of light that danced over her features. The exhaustion morphs into something else, sorrow and resignation and a soul-deep tiredness that seems to encompass her entire being._

_“If there were any survivors on the ship… there aren’t now. Around two, three? Three days ago, the drive cores detonated. I was on the island at the time, doing some more exploring and scanning, I saw it from there. Heard it too. It was like a crack of thunder underwater and a roaring firestorm all at once. The smoke and fire… it was still burning last I checked.” Tears began to fall, and Boo let out a shaky breath as she wiped her tears away._

_“Birdy has gotten more reckless since our venture to the Aurora. We’ve made progress, sure, we have seamoth’s and radiation suits- which automatically became available after the Aurora exploded, and I am so pissed off cause the PDA has plenty of blueprints but we can’t access them because of some bullshit reason so we have to risk our lives scanning bits and pieces and almost drowning or getting eaten or-!” She stops as she chokes on her breath, a sob breaking out. “I’m so scared. Birdy is barely around anymore. He hates it when I leave the habitat for more than an hour, but he’s never here for more than a few hours, most of it sleeping before he’s out again. If he’s not sleeping here he’s at the island. I’m constantly heading out to look for him, check out what’s going on, and almost every time I’ve had to help him deal with some creature chasing him or disabling his seamoth or he’s drowning and I hate this. I hate this!” Her fists slammed on the table as she bowed her head, tears could be seen dripping down and out of view of the screen._

_“He’s so reckless. I know he’s hurting and he’s blaming himself every time we find a new life pod that’s broken and empty. But he’s pushing himself too far, too hard. Birdy has a big heart, and he can’t stand to see others suffer, knowing he could have helped, but that’s the problem. We can’t help. We couldn’t stop the Aurora from detonating, we can’t help those who were in the life pods because most died within hours of hitting the water. He’s the kindest person I know, and he cares so deeply. He’s scared too, not for himself though, but for me, for others. He’s stupidly brave like that.” Her eyes rose enough to look at the screen, a sad, fond light in her eyes._

_She sighed and straightened as she wiped her eyes, “So. There’s been exploring and… building, fabricating. We’ve fixed up the radio, which I don’t know is a good thing or not at this rate. There was also a… I don’t know if it was a vision or hallucination, none of the food I’ve scanned has any hallucinogens in it. I think. There are other changes as well. I want to talk to Birdy about this but…” She sighed again, her eyes once more turning to the window, almost glowing in the light. “Well. We haven’t been talking much. This is the longest we’ve gone without a proper conversation in years, not since that incident on Veskar-3 with the speeders.” She laughed a little, then moved to speak more when her head suddenly turned away. Not towards the window, but something else. From the angle, her eyes could be seen flickering back and forth, as though searching for something._ _  
_ _  
_ _“I have to go. Annabel Day signing off.” She stood so fast the chair toppled over, and the screen shook as the PDA was picked up and carried quickly. Fast, heavy steps were heard before the screen went black._

* * *

“What the fuck were you thinking!?” She screamed once they were back at base, slamming Birdy into a wall before the hatch had even properly closed. The pleasant ‘welcome aboard, captain’ was largely unheard but the sound grated on her frayed nerves nevertheless.

“It was another life pod, I was looking for survivors!” He yelled back, shoving her away as he held his arm, half-melted material clinging to half his arm, the smell already permeating the air between them.

“It’s been a week. If there were survivors we would have either gotten word on the radio or we would have found them, or they us. There aren’t any more survivors, Birdy. We’re it. We’re all that’s left.” She tried to gentle her words. She tried. But she was tired and scared and Birdy was hurt and she didn’t know what was going on but she knew that this planet was dangerous and he was just running out there into danger without so much as a thought for either her or himself.

“I can’t accept that! I won’t! We can’t be the last ones! The Aurora had a full crew-”

“The ship exploded and it’s been patrolled by those fucking things from day one!” She yelled, stepping into his space. “You know what’s out there and how dangerous it is! We barely survived two days, and we had diving gear and each other! Most of them were alone and landed in the worst places. There are no other survivors! You’re being stupid!”

 _“Better than being heartless!”_ Birdy screamed back at her, taking a heavy step forward. Boo flinched back, sharp pain in her chest as his words registered. “It may be easy for you to forget about everyone else but I can’t! I have to at least try! They deserve that much!” The habitat was filled with silence, the words sinking in like a rock sinking to the bottom of the ocean. Boo knew, distantly, that she was shutting down. The stress and her emotions and everything were just too much, even as she saw the look of dawning horror on his face, she felt hers smoothing into something blank and relaxed.

“I will not risk my life for the dead, that is not what my focus is. I am focusing on you. On us. Because we are alive and I know that. We can’t help anyone if we’re dead. It seems we can’t even help anyone when we’re alive.” She wasn’t looking at anything anymore, she couldn’t be bothered to lift her head up enough to look him in the eyes. “While you focused on looking for the life pods and possibly getting yourself killed, I focused on keeping us alive, fed and supplied. I looked for resources, I set up med-kits, the water filter, I-” She stopped and closed her eyes, tears springing up even when all she felt was a yawning chasm deep inside her.

“I mourn. I mourn our friends and the people I didn’t know. The people I only learned about through the radio calls and their PDA’s. And I honour them by living. By surviving this godforsaken planet, so that we may have the chance to share their stories, to tell others what happened, to let their families know, and to give them closure, a funeral, a memorial- I don’t know. Something.” She turned away and wiped away her tears, even though more just continued to fall. 

“I-” She sobbed, words failing her as she began to cry. Everything from this week had built up, and she had been pushing it aside. “I know you’re hurting an-and doing what you can but…” She gave up and just cried. 

When she felt arms wrap around her, she turned into the embrace and fell apart. Birdy would hold her together, she knew, but first she needed to come undone. She felt Birdy shake and shudder as his own sobs and cries mixed with hers. They collapsed onto their knees and, together, came undone. She doesn’t know how long they stayed like that, but by the time they parted, their faces wet and eyes red and swollen- neither of them looked good. But they felt… better. She thinks. Tired, still, but better.

Wordlessly, they stood and moved to the bed, holding each other close even though it was a little awkward. They more or less fell onto the bed, shifting only enough to get comfortable.

“Your arm?” She asked, quietly, feeling her eyelids get heavier.

“I used a first aid kit on the way back, it should be fine for now.” She gave an affirmative hum. “I’m sorry, Boo. I didn’t realise- ow! Hey!” He cursed, and she felt him push her hand away. She’s not sure where it landed, probably his face, but as long as it got him to shut up.

“Don’t. We were both…” She took a deep breath, “Dealing with things our own way. Apologies can wait… till… t’morrow” Boo isn’t sure if Birdy replied to that because she had already fallen asleep.

* * *

Boos’ eyes dragged open, slowly, evidence of her still lingering tiredness. The first thing she felt was the weariness of her body, it seems she still had not physically recovered from their emotional sparring match yesterday. 

To be honest, she wasn’t sure she was mentally refreshed either. She felt drained but content, both physically and mentally, like all the weight she was carrying was gone and now it was time to recover from the stress of it all. 

But that recovery process might take longer than expected… 

She still hadn’t fully returned to her senses just yet, but she knew she was laying on a bed, laying on her side, facing out to the ocean through one of the windows they had installed. 

She sighed in content, she was comfy, warm, covered, and she loved it! The glorious warmth! Take that cold! Everything _felt_ right at that moment. 

But something felt off as if she was missing something. 

Boo went to lazily move from her position when she felt a pull around her waist, pulling her back to bed. She looked at her waist to see an arm warped around her. It took a moment for her brain to boot up before she realized what it was. 

And at that moment, her face lit up like a radioactive tomato. 

Boo could feel Birdy behind her, now being able to hear his soft breathing, indicating he was still asleep. He had her in his grasp, one arm warped around her waist, pulling her back to his chest. 

_'H_ _is hard chest…'_ Her thoughts betrayed her, the red of her face traveling down her neck now at the image. 

She paused for a minute, her senses back to her, mostly. Boo could feel Birdys’ body. His arms around her, his chest to her back. She could feel every shape, every muscle, _fitting perfectly with her body-_

 _Oh dear god-_ Faster than humanly expected, Boo rolled out of Birdys’ grasp, saving herself from going nuclear blush, her brain frazzling itself with images she didn’t need at this moment. However, the downside to her move was that she launched herself _off_ the bed. 

Landing with a thud in a heap of a mess, hair sprawled across her face and head, her outfit all twisted and creased, on her rear, face flushed, and barely keeping herself upright with an arm and an elbow. 

And as if to spite her further, Birdy chose that _exact_ moment to wake up. 

Out the corner of her eye, she spotted him sitting up in alarm. She realized it must have been the noise of her landing on the floor that woke him. 

His eyes immediately locked onto her, and the absolute state she must have been in, as soon as they did a cocky, teasing smile made its way across his face. She could practically see the glint in his eye. 

“Wake up on the wrong side of the bed?” His eyes trail across her form, finding it amusing to see her so disheveled and flustered. 

Once again, her brain failed her. 

“You just took up so much of mine.” Boo winced internally at her response. It wasn’t witty, teasing, or punny, it was just bad. And Birdy clearly knew that too. 

“That's all you got?” His teasing grin only grew, he leaned down to rest his head on a hand, using his elbow to keep himself upright as he lay across the bed. 

The display did little to help her flustered state because her blush refused to leave. 

“Well, I was so _rudely_ awakened when you managed to push me off the bed! You are such a blanket hoarder too, you know that?” She blew a raspberry at him, her best defense at the moment, and pushed herself up.

“I did not! And I don’t hog the blankets!” He cried, thankfully having forgotten all of… that. He sat up and Boo gave him a flat look with a raised brow.

“Were you awake during that utter bedtrayal?” She asked, congratulating herself on her quick recovery. 

“I didn’t- that was a horrible pun, damn it, and I was asleep!” He tried flopping back onto the bed, but Boo just crossed her arms and leaned towards him, smug.

“Then you don’t know what you did, because you were asleep.” She turned away and began walking to the other room so she could see what was available in the aquarium. “Now, I’m gonna make breakfast, and I don’t wanna hear a peep out of you.” 

Boo stumbled forward when something soft hit the back of her head, and knew he had thrown the pillow at her. She only laughed as she grabbed it before it fell to the floor, and took it with her. 

When she was out of sight, she clutched at her chest and heaved out a quiet, strained breath. That was way too close. Her poor heart couldn’t handle that, and her brain kept blue-screening every time Birdy was being extra… Birdy. Ugh, why does she have to deal with this? At this rate, the planet won’t kill her, he will!

At that thought, Boo looked down at her free hand, tilting it this way and that as she watched her freckles almost glow. She wasn’t sure if it was from still being tired or if it was from the shifting light the aquarium gave off, but she remembered how they looked yesterday when she had gone out, forgetting her gloves in her rush, and how in the darker part of the water…

She shook her head. Instead, focusing on breakfast. Then Birdy and her needed to have a proper talk, about everything, then they needed to make a new plan. Something told her most of this morning would be sitting around and talking, but it could be worse. Besides, they needed a break.

“You want lantern fruit or Chinese potatoes?” She called out, grabbing a few boomerangs and setting them on the fabricator to be prepped and cooked.

“Potatoes, please!” Birdy called out, and she could hear the sound of the coffee machine being started up. She smiled and picked the potatoes as she went about preparing breakfast. It was oddly domestic, and a strange kind of joy-filled her chest. Boo truly hoped days like this would continue, even with the embarrassing beginning.

* * *

As much as both Birdy and Boo enjoyed their morning and everything that entailed. The food Boo prepared, simply being in each other’s company, despite the embarrassing start for one of them, there was still some lingering tension. Tension rolling over from yesterday it would seem. 

After their great start this morning, thoughts slowly moved back to the arguments they had, the unfinished words they had yet to say to one another. 

The awkward air that lingered in the habitat said enough about the situation, words would once again have to be exchanged to solve this. 

And they both knew that. 

Yet neither really had any idea on where to start. Birdy and Boo sat in the same room on opposite sides. There was a resounding silence to the room, all that could be heard was the sounds of the sea outside. 

“I’m sorry.” Birdy began, speaking up to finally begin the conversation that needed to be had. His eyes locked onto her as she did him. “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry for everything I put you through.” 

Boo looked as though she was about to respond but was cut off. 

“Stop, Boo,” Birdy continued, he released a breath, “Let me say what I need to say first.” He saw her back down and nod in acceptance. He smiled at her, a way of saying ‘thank you’. 

“What I want to apologize for is everything I must have put you through. How badly I must have scared you, worried you, and even angered you with everything I’ve done the last few days.” Birdy shifted in his seat, “I was so single-minded in my goals that I completely ignored you. However”, he paused, “I’m not sorry about the reasons why I did what I did.” His eyes trailed off Boo toward the window in their habitat, his eyes focusing on the beautiful blue sea just outside. “After what happened at the Aurora,” he did not need to mention what specifically, as he saw Boo flinch out the corner of his eye meaning she knew what part he was on about. “I couldn’t sit by and wait for survivors, not when this planet was killing them. This planet is dangerous, and they wouldn’t know where to begin.” A poor point since they were so new to this as well, but they were both quick on their feet and worked well together, others… not so much. 

“I wouldn’t allow for others to die, I couldn’t stand the thought of it. I hate being helpless when others need it.” His hand forms a fist, tightening as he spoke. “Saving one life would have made all the risks and pain worth it.” 

“But… I’ll admit I’m at fault.” Birdys’ eyes met Boos’ briefly, “I tried to protect everyone else, but in doing so, I forgot to protect the most important thing in the world to me…”

“...You.” Birdy’s head hung low, his elbow resting on his knee, using his hand as a support. It hurt to admit it, there was a genuine sense of guilt for how he’d acted. 

It was fortunate, or unfortunate, that Birdy wasn’t looking at Boo because he would have spotted a blush spreading across her face. 

Although to be fair, he wasn’t much better himself once he fully realized the words he just spoke. A red streak made its way across his face, his heart thumped in his chest before calming itself. 

Turns out, neither had spotted their red-faced comrades state. 

_' Focus idiot, get back on track!'_ Birdy mentally scolded himself. Shaking his head briefly, he sat up straight again. 

“Boo,” Her nickname, the nickname he’d given her, got her attention, “I’m sorry. And I’ll repeat that as many times it takes for you to know I mean it.” Birdy stood up straight across from Boo, “And I’ll admit this… I’ve been an idiot. I can’t do this without you Boo.” Birdy tilted his head upward slightly, eyes not quite meeting Boos’. “I swear to you I won’t leave you, I won’t abandon you. I won’t-” 

Birdy was cut short a smack to the back of the head, a light, almost playful hit to draw his attention. Needless to say, it worked. 

Birdy stared at Boo, mildly surprised by her sudden appearance. She’d been sitting opposite him, and in what seemed like a blur, she moved to him in the blink of an eye. Staring up at him slightly. 

And the way she looked up at him, oh boy, it made his heart flutter and then hurt.   
  
No words were exchanged before Boo just warped her arms around Birdy. There was no hesitation from Birdy either as he too warped her up in a hug in response. 

A muffled laugh made it to his ears, his eyes trailed down to see her head against his chest. She didn’t even look up as she spoke. 

“Birdy, I’ve always known you were an idiot.” He deadpanned at that comment but could not refute it. “But that’s part of your charm.” 

“Gee, thanks.” A small giggle followed from his companion. 

“You’ve always been an idiot,” she repeated, “but we’ve always been together too. The two of us can handle anything that comes our way as long as we do it together. And I’m sorry for the part I played in this mess” Birdy was smart enough not to argue with her on that, even if he didn’t really agree. 

Her head turned up to his with a cheerful, playful smile across her face. “Team?” 

Birdy couldn’t help the not so subtle eye roll at her question, but he also couldn’t hide the genuine smile he had. 

“Team.” 

With that said and done, they waited a few seconds longer in their hug before finally breaking apart. The pair seemed much more lively, Boo practically bouncing out of the hug with a wide smile. 

“You’re still an idiot.” 

“I know…” 

* * *

After they spent the remainder of the morning napping, recovering from all that nonsense, the pair took their time rigging up a com-system of their own. They had to make and then tear apart a radio, then configure it in a way that it would fit with their seamoth’s, and then they had to link it up to their PDA’s. Which was… fun. Neither of them were the best technicians, but they managed. The range wasn’t the best, only about thirty or so metres, but they would at least be able to talk to each other inside their seamoth’s.

“Martin.” Birdy blinked as he turned to stare at Boo, who was sitting by one of the windows and brushing her hair. She really did enjoy looking out windows. Well, he couldn’t blame her, they had a great view.

“What?” He asked, pausing in his sorting out of their rations before they headed out to explore, together. 

“I’m naming my seamoth Martin.” She clarified, beginning to twist her hair into a bun. He thought about it for a moment, before he began snickering, which only increased at the look of suspicion she gave him.

“Is it from Martin the Martian?” He asked, teasing. She blinked at him, before her expression shifted into a truly adorable pout, and she tossed one of the lantern fruits on the table at him. He laughed as he caught it, and then took a bite, giving her a wink. Boo responded by sticking her tongue out at him and blowing a raspberry. 

An unexpected swell of joy filled him at the return of their antics. He hadn’t realised their absence these last few days, nor how much he had missed them. The lightness had returned, the ease of which they interacted, moved and played off each other, it was finally returning to normal. He doubted it would ever be the same, but Birdy thought that it could be better. It would be, considering how they’ve been tried and tested and, he thinks, they’ve come out the stronger for it. 

“No.” Boo responded, rolling her eyes, “I mean as in Martin the Seamoth. I like the sound of it. It’s cute.” She grinned proudly at her decision, before she finished tying off her bun and began checking their air tanks and double-checking their water and food rations, and added an extra bottle of water for each of them. Always so careful, but he can’t blame her, and the small show of concern and care warmed him to the core.

 _‘Yes, you are.’_ Birdy thought, before shaking his head and double-checking that their gear was fully charged and that they had spare batteries. They probably had more than they needed, really, but this planet loved throwing them curveballs, and frankly he didn’t know how far they would be exploring. 

“I was thinking we could explore more of the northern region, I caught sight of a new biome near the Bulb Zone, but it looked pretty open so…” He trailed off, that cursed memory of the Aurora plan, how that roar had pierced into his ear and dug into a very primal fear he hadn’t even realised he had. The feeling of seeing it come into view, towards the lone swimmer-

He closed his eyes and took a deep, calming breath. Counting back from ten. There was nothing he could have done. No one could have helped them at that point. They had been lucky to get out themselves. He was not to blame. He had not failed. Live for them. Honour their memories. Just breathe.

A warm touch at his shoulder and Birdy leaned into it. Feeling steadier already.

“Near one of the Mushroom Forests, yeah?” Boo asked, light and calm and understanding, “I think I saw something like that, but I saw a reaper just outside the border, so I didn’t go further. If we’re careful we can check it out, and the Reaper was pretty far down so if we stick near the surface we’ll be okay”

He nodded, and with one last check, they suited up and headed out. Boo went to her Seamoth- Martin. As he slipped into his, he heard the automatic welcome, and the crackle of the new radio as it came to life.

 _“Hello! Hello! Seamoth Martin to the poor unnamed Seamoth that belongs to Birdy?”_ A voice rose through the static, cheerful and cheeky as always. Birdy rolled his eyes and turned his seamoth to face Boo’s, hopefully she would be able to see his exasperated expression from where she was. 

“This is the seamoth that doesn’t need to be named because it’s ridiculous and is being piloted by Birdy. You reading me?” He spoke, smiling when Martin moved close enough that he could easily see Boo glaring at him before sticking her tongue out at him and turning away.

 _“Alright Captain Buzzkill, let’s go!”_ She turned away and sped off towards the unexplored region that was, frankly, right next to their biome. As he followed her, he wondered. Why did he never think to explore in that direction, really? Well, it had no life pod signals, nor was it on the way for any of the other biomes he had mostly explored, despite being so close by. Well, they can take the time to explore it today, at least a little. 

As they continued along, Birdy noticed how the ground steadily began to rise up. He tilted his seamoth up slightly, and his eyes caught a shape above the water. He leaned forward to look at Boo, who had slowed down to drive side-by-side with him and saw her staring up at what looked to be a mountain. She glanced up at him and nodded. 

With a thumbs-up, Birdy veered upwards and after a few moments, broke the surface of the water. For the few seconds he was above, he was confused. He, admittedly, had to breach the surface twice more before he realised it was a mirage, like from the floating island. He returned to Boo’s side and began to gesture, before remembering that they had the radio’s.

“It’s a mirage.” He spoke, and saw Boo jump a little. He smiled at that, seeing that she had forgotten as well. “Like with the floating island.” He added, and he heard her hum through a radio, a thoughtful look on her face as she steered the seamoth a little ways away to move around a rock formation.

 _“So it’s an island then…_ ” She was quiet for a moment, before speaking up, _“I wonder if anyone made it there.”_ She doesn’t sound eager about the prospect, probably trying not to get his hopes up, but he appreciates the gesture for what it was. 

They continued, keeping relatively close to the surface, as they passed the border of the Mushroom Forest and the Kelp Forest. They eventually reached the island, the walls of stone reaching up beyond the waterline. They veered to the right, following the wall and keeping close to it as well, the open space quickly unsettling them both.

Birdy spotted the Reaper and wholeheartedly agreed with Boo’s noise of displeasure as they moved a little closer to the surface. Not wanting to have anything near a repeat of the Aurora Plan. While Birdy kept an eye on the serpentine shape, he heard Boo mutter through the radio.

 _“What…”_ He steered the Seamoth up and saw what she was talking about. A structure. An actual building, made from some grey material and green lights. Possibilities flew through his head at the speed of light. Another civilisation? Were they native to this planet? Are they still alive? Could survivors have reached this place? He tried to push down the swell of hope that rose in his chest, though he doesn’t know how successful he was. He was quickly distracted by something else.

“What the fuck is that?” he asked, seeing something move into view from behind the building. It looked like some kind of purple squid, and he got a horrible sensation of dread settling heavy in his gut as it turned to them. 

_“Don’t know. Don’t wanna find- Oh fuck!”_ Boo gave a terrified-furious scream and the thing shot something towards them! They strafed desperately, managing to dodge the projectile, though Boo hit the wall of the mountain, it didn’t seem like she cared as she kept cursing and screaming angrily. 

_“What the_ **_fuck_ ** _was that!?”_

“I don’t know! _Run!_ ” They both started screaming when the thing fucking vanished in a swirl of water. What the fuck? How the fuck did it do that? Why the fuck would anything need to do that? Shit was it invisible now? Shit! Shit! Shit!

“Where the fuck did it go!?”

_“Behind you!”_

**_“ AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!! ”_** They both screamed as it shot another bubble of death at them. Birdy choked on a hysterical laugh at the thought of ‘bubble of death’ flashed through his mind- but it was quite apt. Confused, terrified, and furious because this is just another thing on the list of “Things Actively Trying To Kill Us” that they do not need right now. Or ever!

Birdy’s stomach flipped and tried to change places with his lungs as his vision went white and pain ripped through his body. A moment later, it cleared and- _what the fuck was he doing outside his seamoth?_

With barely a thought, he grabbed his seaglide and desperately made for his seamoth. Which was just sitting there! And there was still a Reaper nearby! And he was in the open water! What the fuck was going on!?

The sound of Martin zooming by, clearly trying to keep the new monster’s attention, reached his ears. He felt a burst of worry-relief. Not liking that she was putting herself in danger but relieved that she was here to help him all the same.

He reached his seamoth and immediately whirled around to face the thing that was slowly chasing after Boo. He saw it was preparing another ball, and Birdy felt a flash of anger at the creature and charged the bastard. He slammed the seamoth into it, and the noises he heard made ice skitter up and down his spine and he felt horribly, horribly vulnerable even after dealing a blow to the monster.

_“Birdy!”_

“I’m okay! Let’s get the fuck outta here!” 

_“Roger that!”_ They turned and continued towards the building, going past it and moving back towards the shore, constantly strafing back and forth and desperately hoping the purple fucker wouldn’t pop up in front of them. They steered towards the shoreline they spotted, and Birdy couldn’t blame Boo when she drove Martin right into the beach. They both clambered out and up the shore, breathing hard and shaking. He collapsed after two steps away from his seamoth, the water up to his chest, but he didn’t care. They were far enough to be safe from that thing… he hoped.

Boo stumbled towards him, knee deep in the water, and dropped down in front of him. She grabbed at his shoulders, his arms, checked everything that was above the water, before holding his face in her hands with a gentleness he didn’t expect as relief and fear clashed in her bright eyes.

“When I saw that thing hit you, and then you were outside your seamoth- I…” She leaned forward and pressed her forehead against his. He could feel her shaking, though he wasn’t much better. She shifted, and pulled him close, wrapping her arms around his shoulders and held him as though she was afraid he would disappear- yet she was careful not to hurt him.

“I’m fine.” He managed to choke out when his vocal cords decided to work. His face heating up as she continued to hold him. He could feel where she had pressed her forehead against his tingling, her warmth seeping through their suits and sinking into his very bones, chasing away the icey terror that lingered in his veins. As much as he wanted to hold her, assure her that he was alive and well, his arms wouldn’t move. He could barely feel his body beyond a deep ache and the remaining adrenaline thrumming through him. Damn, those things hurt.

He was loath to let her pull away, but he also felt the full-body flinch she did. The look of pain was clear on her face as she turned away and down into the water, which shifted into a look of annoyance and displeasure as her hand shot into the water and grabbed something. Pulling it out, he recognised it was a Biter. Leaning to the side a little, he saw a little cloud of pink blooming around her leg, and almost laughed. However, this stupid little fish also ruined the moment. 

With an easy motion, he plucked the struggling fish from Boo’s grip, and tossed it behind him onto land. Where it can suffocate and die. Or be eaten by the birds. Or the Cave Crawlers that he can hear scurrying nearby. Oh, Boo’s not going to like that. _At all_.

He could almost feel her unease when she registered the sound, and the loathing look she had as she scanned the area, her hand already moving to her knife as she stood. Her other hand held out to help him up, which he took gladly. Together, they moved out of the water and onto the island proper.

“You’re gonna kick any of these ones too?” He asked, laughter bubbling up as her unhappy expression turned to him, then quickly shifted as a shock of laughter escaped her. A grin pulling at her lips, and he felt a matching grin on his.

“Might kick it into the water, maybe the fuckers below will appreciate the snack.” She quipped, stepping around a rock formation and, with a small flinch, stomped on the crawler that appeared in front of her. The hissed curse that she let out showing that her feelings on the critters hadn’t changed at all since the floating island. Boo never did like most creepy crawlies. She was fine with spiders, strangely enough, but everything else? Nope. She’ll either kill it, run, or kill it and then run. These things being as big as they are, he can’t imagine she’s having a good time with it.

After they took a bit of time killing off the crawlers on the beach, they finally turned their attention to the large building. Apprehension and curiosity buzzed between them, and as they made their approach, Birdy couldn’t help but take in the size and shape of the thing. It looked so different from anything Alterra had made, which was all neat lines and slick curves, with it’s uneven surfaces and blocky make. Was it aesthetic? Practicality? Both? What would they find inside? Survivors or dangers? Friends or foes? There was so much they didn’t know about this planet.

As they approached, he saw Boo pause in the corner of his eye. By the time he turned, she was already moving, a noise of curiosity leaving her as she bent and picked up a familiar purple tablet… or, a piece of it. She tilted it this way and that, before swiping off the residue sand. 

After a long moment, she looked up towards the entrance to the building. He followed her gaze and saw what looked like a green static wall covering the entrance, and he had a feeling they would need an intact tablet to get it. The last thing he wanted to do right now was get back in the water and go all the way back to base and get the one they had found on the Floating Island. 

Maybe there was another one on the island somewhere?

Birdy turned back to Boo the same time she turned to him. He blinked at her, and she blinked back. 

“Think there’s another one hiding away somewhere on the island?” He asked. She gave a doubtful look towards the building, and then the mountain at large, clearly pessimistic about the odds of finding one, before she shrugged and dropped the broken piece.

“Might as well. Don’t have anything better to do without a key.” Together, they headed to the slope that led towards the top of the main part of the building and stopped when they saw a familiar purple light.

“Well.” Boo said, staring at the tablet like she couldn’t quite comprehend it’s appearance, “Well. That’s… convenient.” Birdy let out a snort, and lightly smacked his arm. He shot a grin her way, before moving to pick up the tablet and head back to the entrance. 

Figuring out how the tablet worked with the door, and the Forcefield Control table thing was a fun little experience. As the forcefield began to vanish and the pair slowly approached, Birdy couldn’t help but wonder…

“Do you think magnets were involved in making that?” He asked, turning back to look at the control panel. Boo stopped her attempt to untangle her scanner from her belt and looked up at him in confusion for a moment before realisation flashed in her bright eyes. Remembering how the tablet had almost been pulled to the panel. 

Birdy couldn’t help but notice how her eyes also seemed to glow in this space, the lighting and colour making her hazel eyes seem brighter than usual. It was also having a strange effect with how her freckles looked…

“Maybe. From what I remember, magnets and magnetic fields are still kinda weird for scientists.” She said, and he recalled those articles and news reports about new scientific discoveries. Huh. So there were still some things Alterra didn’t know. The thought came with a burst of satisfaction, and he smiled.

“Come on. We’re wasting daylight, and we don’t know how big this thing is inside.”

“Maybe it’s bigger on the inside.” 

“Oh, that is terrible.”

“I can see you grinning.”

“It’s a grimace!”

“Uh-huh. Keep telling yourself that.” Birdy rolled his eyes at her comment, and they fell into silence as they moved deeper into the complex. Birdy kept his knife out, while Boo had both the scanner and her knife in each hand. 

_“Scans indicate this structure is composed of a metal alloy with unprecedented integrity. No matches found in database. Performing structural analysis.”_ The PDA helpfully chimed in after they got a few feet down the hallway. Birdy wasn’t quite sure how that would help, though it did make Boo jump, so he figured it was worth it. She was so easy to spook, and making her jump when startled was a great way to get her flustered and blushing, she was so adorable when she got like that…

He shook his head and focused. This was not the time for those kinds of thoughts. As they got further in, past a strange open room with odd structures, and into another large room. There was a glowing symbol, it looked a bit like those holograms Alterra uses in its advertisement, but this was green and had the same symbol from the tablet, he thinks. By the looks of it, he would guess it was some kind of terminal.

Boo stepped forward to take a look, glancing around the space for a moment before focusing entirely on the terminal. After a few moments, the floating symbol vanished and their linked PDA’s pinged as new information was downloaded. There was a message about needing to translate the data, but he wasn’t surprised by that. It was an alien facility after all.

When they came across the green glowing cube, however, that was a surprise. The sudden noise scared even him! And seeing the cube offered up like one of those old Indiana Jones movie clichés made him a tad suspicious, but when he picked it up... nothing happened. Huh. The cube did have a slight vibration to it, nearly humming in his hands, he turned it one way, then the other, and bounced it in his hands to test the weight. 

He held it out to Boo, who scanned it and relayed the information she got. A thrum of excitement went through him at the idea of using alien technology. How cool was that? It would be like those old sci-fi stories! Tablets and super-powered batteries. That would make things so much easier in the long run. He packed it away in his bag, wondering if there were more and, if so, where possible caches of these cubes could be.

After that, things were fairly straightforward, Birdy could admit. They continued through the building, picking up the odd ion cube they found and any data they could get their hands on. They began to relax as they went deeper into the building. It was clear that there was nobody here, and that there hadn’t been for quite a long time. It was kind of ominous, really, how there didn’t seem to be any evidence to anyone being here beyond a cube and some data entries. It was completely empty.

He shuddered as their steps echoed back at them, this kind of open space just as unsettling as the open ocean, but in a completely different way. He’s not sure which one he would rather, honestly.

When they came to an open shaft, going straight down, with green lights zipping about within- a flash of caution and curiosity buzzed between him and Boo as they kind of just… stared at the thing. Boo leaned forward a little, wanting to see the bottom but not wanting to get too close, before stepping back and looking at him in question. Frankly, he didn’t have any idea either, but there’s a way to find out!

Carefully, he stepped forward and slowly extended his hand, just as he touched into the open space, he felt a pull and he was in the shaft, floating among the green lights. He turned to Boo and he could _feel_ the stark terror reflected in her eyes. Then he dropped.

“Birdy!”

The scream followed him down, and just when he thought he would be smashed, crushed, against the floor- his momentum halted, like he was on a bungee cord, and he stumbled out of the bottom of the shaft, stumbling as he tried to keep his balance as his stomach did backflips. 

“Whoa-”

“Ah!”

 _“-Oof!”_ Only for something to slam into him from behind and send him to the floor. Once his head cleared, he turned his aching head enough to catch sight of red hair, and huffed out a laugh that quickly turned into a groan as he properly registered the pain in his body thanks to that fall. It also made the pain in his arm from that burn yesterday flare up. 

“Birdy! You’re okay!” The joy and relief in her voice made him forget his pain for a second as he felt her roll off him. “Sorry about that, by the way.” She added, sheepish, as she helped him stand up and checked him over.

“The only wounds I got were from you, Boo.” He laughed, poking at her cheek when she blushed, “Was that revenge for something?” He said, teasing and loving the way she went red even as she looked at him like she was planning where to hit him first. She wouldn’t do it. Not until they were safe at base, at least.

She blew a raspberry at him, “It’s a down payment for when you inevitably do something stupid again.” She said, and that got a laugh out of him. The tension this place had built up draining in the face of their good cheer. God, he really can’t imagine how he would survive this planet without her…

Together, they continued on. The giant moonpool was unexpected, though no doubt would be very useful later on if they ever came back here. Maybe they could make this place a base? With some décor and furniture it wouldn’t look so bad, and certainly wouldn’t be so ominous. He tucked the thought away, he would bring it up with Boo later.

They found some artifacts that Boo happily scanned, and when she read about the doomsday device… yeah, they weren’t gonna talk about that. Instead they just kept on moving. The purple tablet they found was great, as it let them into what seemed like the last room in this building.

As Boo looked around what looked to be a glowing pillar of some kind, Birdy -maybe a little hastily- saw what looked to be a button and pushed it. 

“Shit! Boo!” Birdy yelled when his hand got caught in some kind of forcefield and some weird looking pipe with a big ass needle on the end slithered out of the pillar. By the time Boo got around, the thing had already stabbed him! The lights went red and the machine retracted and let him go. Boo was at his side in a second, looking over his arm even as she listened to an alien automatic-sounding voice echo through the building, their PDA’s helpfully translating what they could.

_“The control panel is broadcasting a message. Translation read… WARNING: Infected individuals may not disable the weapon. This planet is under quarantine.”_

The pair stared at the alien panel as they slowly comprehended what had been said, and what that meant. Almost on autopilot, Boo scanned the glowing pillar, and stared blankly at her PDA. Birdy stared at her, though he wasn’t really seeing her, as he began to really understand what was happening. The Aurora hadn’t malfunctioned or had an accident… _it had been shot down._ Because… because of a _planet-wide disease._

Dully, he watched as Boo scanned herself. It seemed to take an eternity, and when she stared at the screen of the scanner, he knew. _He knew._ What the reading was and what that meant for them. There was a dull roar building up in the back of his head, static in his ears, and he recognised the heavy heat in his veins as the herald of _rage_.

A sudden _‘crack!’_ snapped him out of his spiral, and he snapped to where the noise had come from, only to see Boo’s scanner, broken and sparking, bounce to the floor. A wordless scream of rage erupted from her as she turned and lashed out at the panel and the pillar of light that was the power source of this place. 

Without thinking, he grabbed her and pulled her away, he refused to look at the blood splatters that had been left on the machines. His arms wrapped around her, trapping her arms against her sides as she screamed and cried that _it wasn’t fair_ . Why was it never easy for them? _Why!?_

He pressed his head against her shoulder as she struggled, holding her tight and slowly letting them sink to the floor. All the while he spoke. “It’s alright, Boo. It’s okay. I’m here. We’ll get through this. Together. Please. Please don’t hurt yourself…” As she collapsed into a sobbing mess.

This… This scared him. He had never seen her break down like this before. He’s seen her cry, get depressed, he’s seen her get angry and annoyed and seen her lose her patience but… this? This raw show of fury and pain and grief? She was always quiet in those things, always composed and she would sort it out in her own time, in her own ways, but this complete lack of control had never happened before. It scared him, shook him to his core, like one of the fundamental pillars of his life had been compromised somehow. He didn’t know what to do here. He didn’t know how to help her. He hated this. Why did this keep happening?

Now they were stuck on an alien planet that not only was trying to kill them, but there was also an entire goddamn disease that was trying to kill them. He began to shake, and didn’t bother to stop the tears as, together, they broke down. Sobs and cries and questions echoed through the symbol of their prison and were met with empty silence.

* * *

Neither of them had the energy or will to continue exploring. So, after they checked over each other and fixed each other's injuries -Boo really had done a number on her hands, she suspected they may be broken- the pair returned to their seamoth’s and headed straight home. It was quiet, and the pair couldn’t muster up the energy to even speak. They were lost in their own thoughts.

Which was probably why the sudden hissing-screech of a boneshark startled them so bad. With a shout, Boo accidentally ended up ramming one of the bastards, while Birdy managed to veer to one side so hard he hit one of the rock formations. 

_“You okay, Boo?”_ He asked through the radio. It took a moment for Boo to get control of her heart rate, and when she did- she didn’t know why, but. She began to laugh. A small huff at first, then a snicker, then a giggle, and then it devolved into full blown laughter. She laughed so hard she could barely steer Martin. After a moment, she heard that Birdy was laughing along with her. God. It wasn’t even funny!

They were still snickering like children by the time they entered their base. Whenever they would begin to settle down, they would just have to glance at each other and they would have another fit of laughter.

“God. I have never craved a hot bath so much before in my life.” She gasped out as she collapsed into a sitting position on the bed. “Nor a good drink,” Boo said after a moment as she shifted back so she could lean against the wall.

“You know, we could probably make a distillery. Those lantern fruits might make a good source of alcohol.” Birdy said as he fell face-first onto the bed, lifting his legs and moving about so he could lay them over her lap. She rolled her eyes, but let him.

“That’s a good idea. A little project for us. We could even work on a bath.” She said, idly beginning to remove his shoes while she kicked her own off. “A full en suite with a big master bathroom. A tub big enough to fit three of us, each, a big walk-in shower, a vanity that takes up half the wall.”

“What would you even use the vanity for?” Birdy asked as he lifted his face from the mattress, presumably to breathe. Boo smiled at him as he pulled one of the pillows over for him to rest his head on.

“The vanity is for you.” And then apparently changed his mind and threw the pillow at her. She heard his indignant ‘Oi!’ over her laughter, and attacked his exposed feet in a tickle attack. He gave a yelp and tried to get away, unfortunately, this led to him rolling right off the bed. Boo let out a loud bark of laughter at his startled shout and the resounding ‘thump’ that followed right after. She couldn’t breathe she was laughing so hard, and when Birdy clambered up enough to glare at her, she wheezed and fell sideways onto the bed, grasping her sides and shaking as she tried to get air into her lungs even as she continued to cackle.

“Alrighty then! Seeing as you're indisposed, I suppose I shall be forced to make us dinner tonight.”

“I-it was-was your t-t-turn any… way.” She managed to squeeze out as her laughter continued. He may have tried to hide it, but she saw his smile. As she calmed down, she stood and headed to the coffee machine. They would need to talk… again. But now that they knew to, well, recognise when they needed to talk, it would be a little easier. Better to rip off the Band-Aid now rather than let it sit and fester, as they had learned. 

As she heard Birdy call from the other room, asking about her thoughts on a salad, she decided they would talk later. They were exhausted after today, they needed some time to rest, to process and recover. Tomorrow. They would talk tomorrow. They needed to make a new plan. 

She rubbed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose, banishing those thoughts and moving to the table. She set the cups down and set the table, before she sat down and turned her attention to the window and beyond. If nothing else, this planet had some wonderful views.

* * *

_The screen powered on, revealing Birdy standing in what appeared to be their habitat. He was standing, holding the PDA up like a phone when you were in a video call with someone._

_His attention was off-screen for a moment, as though he was thinking of something else besides his current recording. When his eyes flickered back to his PDA you could tell he was fatigued, tired, clearly having been busy since his last log entry but at the same time, he looked relieved, lively, as if he had more pep in his step. It was then that he finally spoke._

_“Today was… exhausting, if not busy.” Birdy began slowly, thinking about the words to use. “So much happened these past few days, tensions rising, plenty of risks, arguments, resolutions, discoveries, and what could be an impending disaster heading our way.” He sighed quietly, “It all just bubbled up to the surface yesterday, today too, and I can’t exactly say it wasn’t unwarranted. If anything, it was a well-needed ordeal.”_

_“I suppose I should begin with the argument,” Birdy rubbed a hand across his face as he spoke, “I’ve been… reckless… selfish even over the last few days and that’s what my argument with Boo- Annabel was about. My intentions were sound but I was endangering myself- us- with my actions. Annabel had to slap some sense into me, tensions were high, emotions were strained.” Birdy sighed, “Honestly, that was the best thing to happen, get it all laid out on the table and sort it out… together.” He smiled, “And solve it we did. We hugged it out, slept together-” Birdys’ eyes widened at what he said before swiftly attempting to correct himself, “we shared a bed, relaxing, allowing all the stresses and worries we’ve had bottled up leave our bodies and minds before we went to sleep, we just happened to be on the same bed!”_

_Birdy winced at his tone, how quickly he rushed to fix his slip. A bright red blush made its way across his face. He couldn’t even look directly at the PDA. You could see him fighting his blush away. In the distance, you could hear laughter coming from somewhere off-screen, and a look of horrified realisation dawned on his face as he realised his companion had heard him._

_“That doesn’t sound much better!” Came the familiar, delighted, voice of Annabel Day, sounding as though she was in another room._

_He coughed audibly, clearly in an attempt to recover and distract from his previous statement. “Well, after that, the next morning, things were much better. You could still feel some lingering tensions here and there, but the morning…” His thoughts drifted back to their shenanigans that morning, a fond smile creeping across his face once again, “...it was the best one we had on this planet. After that fun we finally, once and for all, sorted ourselves out.” Birdy chuckled at the memory, the two of them stood in their habitat simply hugging it out. “We’re in this together till the end.”_

_“So, with that out of the way, we decided to explore more of the ocean, searching for anything and everything we might find useful. And, unfortunately, that didn’t go as expected.” If one listened hard enough you could hear Birdy muttering the phrase ‘...when does it ever for us…’._

_“The first discovery we made was this mantis, squid creature, which has been dubbed ‘The Warper’, no prizes for guessing why it’s called that. That thing is a menace and I won’t let it live, I’ll find a way to kill. Somehow.” Birdys’ eyes narrowed at the thought of the creature. But he relented on those thoughts and moved on with his recording._

_“I suppose the biggest discovery of the decade has to go to the island with the gun platform on it.” He stared into the PDA before explaining, “As we explored the ocean we found another island, only the second landmass above sea level on this planet, and much to our shock we found a massive gun platform. We knew the moment we saw it that it was not Alterra tech, it was alien in nature and it was_ **_bigger_ ** _than any weapon Alterra has made.” The screen shook slightly as Birdy moved to sit down, “This gun platform… It's an enforcement unit. We investigated the structure and learned that it’s designed to keep a disease_ **_in_ ** _by shooting down anything that finds itself too close to the planet.”_

_“I suppose the biggest shocker was the discovery of this disease in the first place, and trust me, it’s bad. As far as we are aware there is no cure for it, but we haven’t given up hope just yet since this disease has been on the planet for a long time yet life still continues to thrive. That must mean there is something here that is keeping creatures alive and healthy, we just have to find it.”_

_Birdy ran a hand through his hair before allowing his head to rest on the palm of his hand, “The trouble is, we’re gonna have to go_ **_deep_ ** _if we’re gonna find anything and, unfortunately, we’re not yet prepared enough for that trip. So we’re gonna plan this journey out, gather the materials and supplies we need, prep the seamoths’, and then explore the ocean caverns to see what we can find.”_

_“It’s gonna be a tough one, that’s for damn sure, but we have each other. Together…. We can make it through this and out the other end for the better.” Birdy smirked at that line just off-screen. “Wish us luck.”_

_From the other room, you could hear Annabel add “We’re gonna need it!” cheerfully, causing Birdy’s smirk to shift more towards a smile._

_“This is Officer Williams, signing off.” And with that, the screen went dark._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So who thinks these two are handling this whole death planet and alien disease thing well? Any takers? No? Haha! Why do we love making our characters suffer so much? Ah well, things will get better in the next chapter! Don't forget to leave kudos and reviews, let us know what ya think!


	4. Deep Thoughts, Shallow Trouble

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Out of the water and into the fire. More is learned and the pair feel more and more out of their depth, and they cling to anything that will give them hope, even if it's just each other. However, when the opportunity to beat back the maw of desolation arises, will they rise to meet the challenge through fire and metal? Or will they sink further into darkness?
> 
> Warnings: Fire, breakdowns/panic attacks, roller coaster of emotions and everything that is Subnautica.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holy crap, this was a LONG chapter, it took forever. It wasn't meant to be! We had, like, three bullet points for things we wanted to cover for this chapter, and then it just kept going. But we got there. We're done. Dear lordie it took forever, but we got there!
> 
> Fair warning, there is a switch in time frame that goes from Flashback to Present and there is basically no warning/indication, so if you're confused about it, just assume it's changed. There is a lot of thoughts and talking, and you can tell where we've skipped over things because this chapter was just dragging on, but it was fun, and it was nice to have this kind of challenge!
> 
> As usual, this was co-written by AlcatrazDGold who has cross-posted this on Fanfiction, go take a look at his works!
> 
> Apologies for any mistakes made or missed, let me know and I'll fix 'em!
> 
> Enjoy!

_The video begins with Birdy standing in what appears to be a bedroom, a bed behind him in view of the camera gave that one away. The room itself was lit up, yet you could see that it was artificial. So, it must have been early morning, before the sun rises. Birdy looked… well, different in a way, and tired._

_“Let’s get this out of the way then,” he began, eyes staring directly at his PDA screen, “I’m gonna be completely honest here. Annabel and I, we’re- we’re changing in ways. Physically. Whatever kind of diseases, infections, or prions are on this planet it seems to be doing something to us both. And this isn’t a part of the Kharra virus, it’s something new, something different.” he clarified. “Something specific to both of us. It’s like… like we’re evolving in some form. In ways that might help us survive this planet.”_

_Birdy paused, glancing over to something off-screen. Eyes lingering on whatever it was off-screen._

_“Here, let me show you.” The screen shook slightly as Birdy walked from one end of the room to the other. For a moment the screen went dark, barely lit up at all. It was near-total darkness inside the bedroom Birdy was in. He’d turned out the lights inside the room._

_The reasoning behind his action became instantly clear._

_When Birdy turned back to the PDA, face on full display for the screen to record, it showed his eyes glowing a vibrant, deep blue. The blue of his irises moved, flowed around the inside, glowing in the dark like that of a predator in the night. They had mutated, adapted, evolved for some reason. His eyes seemed so inhuman now, but it wasn’t the only change._

_The camera had a view of his neck as well, which revealed another strange mutation. The veins on his neck were glowing a dimmer, similar shade of blue. They didn’t glow as colorful or bright as his eyes but there was a form of bio-luminescent light emanating from his veins._

_This… was unheard of._

_“A shocker, isn’t it?” Birdy asked no one in particular, you should see from his expression that he was just as surprised. Obviously, he hadn’t fully recovered from the shock of this discovery either. Reasonable to say the least. “My eyes, my veins, they’re bio-luminescent. They glow in the dark, naturally, I have no choice or control over it. It’s just there, permanently.”_

_Birdy exposed a portion of his torso to allow his PDA to see the veins across his neck stretching across his chest, moving his PDA around himself from a higher view around himself, the light dimming as his veins went deeper into his body. The light was brighter in the areas where his veins were closer to the surface of his skin._

_Despite the strange glowing veins, his eyes still drew more attention. Just the clearness, the crystal-like color behind the blue glow was staggering to look at. Beautiful even. Birdy had been complimented about his eyes before, but now? Damn._

_“Needless to say, I was even more stunned when we first noticed these changes.” A small chuckle escaped his lips, “Annabel and I, both.”_

* * *

The pair had just finished dinner and were going over their gameplan. Which was primarily hoarding resources, prepping the indoor and outdoor gardens, and scanning every part and piece for blueprints they could find.

It had only been a day since finding out about the disease, but they had spent most of the day relaxing and comforting each other, thinking and sorting themselves out. So now they get back in the saddle, just with a slightly changed game plan. In that, the entire plan has been scrapped and they’re making a new one.

“Right, so which resources have we found in which biome?” She asked, starting up a list. She already had a good chunk done, though it was frustrating how deep they would have to go to get what they really needed. Luckily, a lot of them could be grown and harvested in the external growbeds. As long as they weren’t reckless, it shouldn’t be too hard to get what they need and get out. 

“Well, I know there’s-” Birdy started, only to stop when the lights died. They looked up at the ceiling, listening to the automated voice talk about running out of power. Boo sighed as she set her tablet down and stood.

“Aw, come on!” Birdy groaned, leaning back in his chair so far she was worried he would tip over, “Not again!”

“I keep telling you we should make thermal plants. I know making and placing the transmitters is gonna be a pain, but long term it’s better than constant blackouts because we keep forgetting to restock the bioreactor.” She started towards the hallway, which would lead to the room where the bioreactor was, pausing along the way to grab some creepvine seeds from one of the lockers. 

“Yeah, but that means hanging out where the- wait, what?” Boo paused at the bewildered tone he suddenly took, quickly doubling back to make sure nothing was wrong.

“You good?” She asked, poking her head into the room. She wasn’t sure, since she was holding a bunch of glowing seeds, but it looked like Birdy was staring at his… hands? He looked over to her, and she could only stare as the blue of his eyes cut through the dark. “... Hang on.” Boo quickly went and put the seeds back in the locker, and then came back into the room.

Now she could see what had him so concerned. He was… glowing. And not just because he was good looking, but she could see his eyes glowing bright in the darkness and his skin… It looked like lightning. Lightning in his veins. 

“Wow.” Boo couldn’t help the awe in her voice. “I know this is probably a cause for concern but… you’re beautiful.” Even in the dark, she could see the blush that sprung upon his face, and she felt her own face warm a little, but it was true! 

“You’re glowing too.” Birdy said, gesturing to her. She looked at her arms and saw what he said was true. Pink dots covered her arms, and she could guess if she shined a light she would see her freckles in the same places at the lights. Huh.

“They’re pretty.” She decided, her eyes flicking to him, “How do my eyes look?”

“Gorgeous.” He seemed to breathe the word as it slipped out without him realising. She laughed when his blush returned with a vengeance, and Boo couldn’t help but step forward to rise on her toes so she could kiss his cheek. 

“Thank you. Now, I’m gonna go restock the reactor, and we’ll talk about this later.”

“You don’t seem all that worried about this, you know,” Birdy called after as she left to do exactly as she said. 

Laughing, she replied cheerfully, “After the past few days we’ve had, I’m all freaked out. I don’t think much could faze me at this point! So yeah, why not bioluminescence?” 

* * *

_His expression grew harder, a slight furrow of the brows, a small frown on his lips. “Boo thinks the Kharra has something to do with it, maybe making our DNA unstable enough to allow these mutations to happen. I’m not sure if that’s right-”_

_“You got a better theory?” A voice called lightly, Annabel coming into view. She too showed signs of genetic alteration. Her eyes glowed a myriad of shades of blue, grey, green, and amber, similar to her usual hazel, and her freckles glowing a pink shade similar to what had been seen from the ancient floaters in past video’s._

_“Got some coffee for you, too.” Thanks to the glowing marks, it was easy to track the movement of the pair, despite it being so dark._

_“Thanks- hang on. How did you get here?” Birdy asked, sounding perplexed._

_“I… walked?”_

_“No. I mean, how did you get here so easily, in complete darkness, carrying two full cups of coffee?” There was a long pause, and the glowing eyes that belonged to Boo moved to scan the area of the habitat beyond the screen. There was a slow blink before she turned back to Birdy._

_“I can see in the dark.”_

_Another long pause._

_“What?”_

_“I can see exactly where everything is. I can see the bonesharks wandering about outside and all the other little fish. It’s nighttime and the lights are off. I can see in the dark.” She seemed just as shocked about the news as Birdy seemed to be._

_“Habitat, lights on.” The screen quickly adjusted to the sudden change in lighting, but Boo hissed and covered her eyes. The glow vanished from the pair. “Oh shit! Habitat, lights off! Boo, are you okay?”_

_“Yeah. Yeah. The lights hurt my eyes, is all.”_

_“Are we gonna have to live in darkness now?” Even with her eyes covered, she was still able to lightly smack her companion._

_“No. I’ll be fine. I just need to let my eyes adjust. Something tells me sudden extreme changes in lighting is gonna make my life difficult.”_

_“Then we won’t do that much. So, you’ve got night vision now. What about me?”_

_“Toughness.”_

_“... what?”_

_“You know those tiger coral things that shoot the spikes?”_

_“Yeah?”_

_“You don’t have the reinforced diving suit.”_

_Another long pause. Thoughts going back to a certain little event that happened the day prior._

* * *

Today was one of those days, dubbed ‘resource day’ by Boo. Their objective for the day was just to gather resources and supplies, whether that be materials for fabricating, or food and water. 

Thus far, they had gathered metal scraps that would be made into titanium, plenty of copper and lithium, both of which are extremely useful, and some creepvine seeds. 

Obviously, the stupid stalkers harassed them the whole time they were there, Birdy ended up stabbing one of them which certainly annoyed it. They really earned their name when it followed them all the way out to the grassy plateau, and to the safe shallows. It’s called the _safe_ shallows for a reason you stalky bastards! Luckily it got the message to leave them alone when Birdy made it bleed. 

With that annoyance dealt with, the pair continued their scavenger hunt in the safe shallows. Mostly in search of food here since there were plenty of small, friendly peepers, bladderfish, and boomerangs for them to catch, and eventually eat. 

Quite nutritional too, if the duo had any say on that fact. 

Needless to say, especially with how friendly some of these creatures were, they caught a decent portion of fish. Enough to do them a week if prepared, cooked, and stored properly. 

“I think it’s about time we start heading back.” Birdys’ voice crackled over the radio to Boo. She turned to see him a few feet behind her, he appeared to be inspecting their surroundings, as well as watching over her, and the small fish that swam rapidly around him. 

One of said fish, a peeper, swam past Birdy and directly toward her. 

_'Heh, easy little catch.'_ Boo thought to herself, the poor little sucker was gonna make for some fine dining. Shame they were cute little critters, she felt kinda bad for eating them, but a girls gotta eat. “Just let me catch this one last one.” She responded as she swung her knife. 

Unfortunately, the little shit managed to avoid her swing entirely and passed her right by, even bouncing off her face mask. Her head shook in surprise but she recovered quickly, watching where the peeper had swum off to, keeping her eyes on it and the direction it was heading. 

“Good hit.” Came the, currently irritating, voice of her comrade. Her head swiveled toward him, eyes locked onto his with a soft glare. From here it was easy to make out his stupid smile. 

“Hush, he’s not escaping me that easily.” She didn’t even wait for his response, she knew it would either be teasing or taunting in nature. Instead, she focused on where the peeper was last seen. 

And, low and behold, the peeper was there almost motionless in the water. Watching her, taunting her…

 _'Oh, challenge accepted, you fishy little shit!'_ Boo burst through the water toward the peeper, waiting for it to make its move. When she got too close for comfort, it burst off further into the sandy crevasse below. 

However, Boo was hot on its heels! 

She dove deeper into the crevasse, following behind the elusive peeper. She could see the little bugger begin to panic, shooting from side to side as if realizing it was trapped. 

Its frantic motions gave Boo an opportunity to catch up to it, she was so close she could practically taste it! 

And later, after cooking, she shall! 

The peeper cornered itself in the cave, back to a cavern wall with a predatory Boo approaching from the front. 

“Gotcha!” Boo yelled as she made to swing with her knife. 

However, before she swung, a familiar, if not unsettling, sound echoed throughout the cave. The familiar whine of a certain exploding fish rapidly approaching her from behind. 

Boos’ head swiveled behind her, body twisting to face this threat when her eyes widened at how close the crashfish was. The thing looked ready to pop any second now! 

She didn’t have any time to react as it reached her, the crashfish crying out as it did when it was about to explode. Boo crossed her arms across her face to shield herself, eyes closed, bracing for the incoming pain. 

But, Boo felt a familiar body grab her, and pull her into a tight, protective, embrace. She knew it had to have been Birdy, he must have followed her as she chased that damned peeper! 

The only problem with this was that Birdy was _in front_ of her, in the way of the crashfish! 

A small explosion shook the pair, the noise bounced around inside the walls of the cave. It all happened in the space of a few seconds, yet, to her, it seemed so much longer than that. The moment dragged on, she could feel her nerves flare as she felt the shock wave of the explosion. 

“Cutting it kinda close, aren’t we?” Birdy spoke up, finally, breaking the silence that filled the air after the boisterous bomb fish. 

Boo turned her head upward, his head staring down at her. She could make out his expression through his mask, she saw the concern plastered across his face. 

“Not my fault the fish love me.” Sassed back, lightening the mood with her response. She smirked at him, “I don’t see anything dying to get close to you!” 

“Ha Ha, very funny. But not really.” She caught his subtle eye roll but chose not to comment on it. “In all seriousness though, you okay?” He asked. 

“I should be the one asking you mister!” Boo yelled through their radio, “You just threw yourself in front of me all willy nilly! Shielding me but putting _yourself_ in harm's way!” Her glare bore holes through Birdy, despite how soft, and cute, the glare was. 

“Instinctive, I assure you Boo.” Birdy responded, “I acted without thinking.” 

She pouted at him and glanced away slightly to hide the small tint of red on her cheeks. “You usually act without thinking... That’s your MO.” 

Birdy titled his head to the side as if he was thinking for a moment. “Yeah… I can’t argue that one, can I?” 

“No! No you can _not!_ ” Boo shook where she swam as she scolded him, and that’s when she noticed that Birdy still held her in his embrace. This whole time she has been in his arms, in his _embrace_ , and he hadn’t even attempted to let go of her either. 

Boo glanced up at Birdy, staring directly into his face in an attempt to get him to realize what he was doing. When she saw his eyebrow raised in confusion, she knew he didn’t get the message. So, she wiggled slightly. 

And by Jesus did that get his attention. 

His arms were off her in a blur of motion, the space between her and his chest grew by about three feet, and his head was turned to the cave entrance, away from her. 

“I think we should be done for the day, we have enough to get started on fabricating our equipment for our deep-diving mission.” One could hear the slightest, and I mean slightest, wobble in his voice but was tragically missed by Boo. She did, however, catch the reddened face on her comrade.

That wasn’t the only thing Boo noticed when Birdy turned, as her eyes caught sight of a small bone-like spike sticking out of Birdys’ dive suit just above his rear. And once she noticed that one, she noticed another two. 

“Are you okay Birdy?” She asked, eyes remaining locked on the injury, narrowing in suspicion. Or at least, what she thought was an injury. 

“I feel fine. Trust me.” He responded without turning to her, eyes locked on other areas of the cave as if keeping vigil for any other threats. Boo, on the other hand, was skeptical as they looked at the injury.

Boo reached down and pulled on the small spike by his rear, yanking it out of his dive suit, without him noticing she might add. Her eyes searched the hole in his dive suit for any sign of injury or blood but, to her surprise, found none. 

_Whaaa...?_

Boos’ eyes quickly traveled to the other spikes protruding out of his dive suit. They too had broken through the fabric but she saw no blood seeping from the wounds either. Her eyes scanned Birdy again, this time she checked his gear too. She paused when she noticed the damage done to his O2 tank, scratched, scraped, and slightly dented. Now, she knew those were there before, Birdy hadn’t been mentioned his O2 tank being damaged in any way, so that meant that the crashfish explosion was the source of the damage. 

The _metal_ of the O2 tank was damaged but _Birdy_ wasn’t. 

_'Okay, what the fuck…'_ This was confusing, how does that work? She knew Birdy was a right tough bastard, most of the time, but he wasn’t built stronger than _steel_ for goodness sake. 

… She feels like there’s a Man of Steel joke in there somewhere...

Which there probably was but her confusion held her back from making that joke. 

“Come on, we’re wasting daylight.” Birdy hovered a few feet away from her, nodding his head in the direction of the cave entrance. A moment later, he was off. 

Boo remained still, glancing between Birdys’ retreating figure and the spike in her hand. There was _something_ going on with Birdy, he didn’t even know, and she was absolutely going to find out! 

She released her grip on the spike and it rolled out of her hand, free-falling to the sand below her. 

_'This world gets weirder and weirder by the second.'_

Boo took one final glance around the cave just as she was about to leave when she spotted movement. 

Familiar movement.

Further inside the cave, a peeper swam slowly back and forth. Its big eyes watching her. 

It was the peeper she’d chased all the way here! 

And it just swam in place… taunting her. 

“Next time you fishy little shit,” Her eyes narrowed at her newfound nemesis, “next time.”

With that, she left the cave. Leaving behind one proud peeper. 

* * *

_“Sunniva bitch.” His expression turned thoughtful, “I don’t get bruised or cut up as much either. Biters don’t hurt-”_

_“Lucky bastard.”_

_“-Yes I know. Sandsharks can’t bite as deep… shit, I am tougher. You sure this is just me?”_

_“The spikes still make me bleed. So, yeah, pretty sure.” She said lightly, unbothered by the fact._

_“Huh. Nice.” Birdy turned back to the screen. “Right. So we have both obvious mutations, like the glowing, and the more… survival-oriented mutations? I think that sounds right. Plus we have that weird vision we both had, which means we’re not going crazy and that there’s something out here with us. Trying to contact us…” Birdy’s eyes moved off-screen, and Boo’s eyes followed. The pair both had mixed expressions, clearly, neither had expected whatever it was they saw, and they didn’t know how to feel about it. “Speaking of contact, we have some news to share.” His eyes met Boos’, “Boo, if you would.”_

_“I’ll play it,” Boo said quietly, standing and moving out of frame. There was the sound of footsteps, a button being pushed, and then-_

* * *

Admittedly, they had left the radio alone for these past few days, unable to stand having to pick up more emergency messages from anymore lifepods, knowing they would already be dead. Like echoes from the dead, a picture of their lives just before it’s snuffed out. So, the button had been flashing red for a while now, but getting the ‘new transmission’ announcement after so much silence was… unexpected, to say the least. 

Boo doesn’t know what to expect when she pressed the ‘play’ button, but hearing an unfamiliar voice announce itself over the radio was not it. 

_"This is Avery Quinn of the trading ship Sunbeam. Aurora, do you read? Over… Nothing but vacuum. These Alterra ships. They run low on engine grease, they send an SOS; you offer to help, they don't pick up._

_“Aurora, we're out on the far side of the system, it's going to take more than a week to reach your position, do you still need our assistance? Over.”_

_“I'll try them again tomorrow. Damn charter's going to have us wasting our profit margin running errands for Alterra._

_“See what the long-range scanner picks up in the meantime."_

Distantly, Boo knew she was disassociating, going into shock even, but the only thing that went through her head was one clear, simple thought:

_‘They are going to get shot down.’_

She forces herself to take a deep breath, then another, and another, and slowly, Boo drags herself back. Turning around, she sees Birdy staring at her with a muted horror that is no doubt also on her face. His hands are shaking, and he looks seconds from doing something reckless or breaking down similarly to how she did back at- back at that place.

Carefully, she steps around the table and puts an arm around his shoulders, letting him lean against her as they just… breathe together, for a little while. Reaching for calm before they begin to move. They can do this, they can get through this, they just needed to stay calm and think.

“Do you think they’ll get close?” She asks, she knows the answer but she has to ask. 

“Once they pick up the debris field, yes, they’ll want to get closer.” His response is cold, clinical, but Boo can feel the grief and sorrow and hopelessness coming off him in waves. They’re both helpless to stop this and they know it.

“Even if no one answers?”

“We picked up the transmission, we played the transmission, their computers will have registered that. They’ll get too close and…” His arms wrap around her waist and pull her closer, unable to finish the sentence. He doesn’t need to. She tightens her hold on him, wrapping him up in her arms as best she can. Normally, he would be trying to figure out any way he could possibly avert the impending tragedy, but their radio was short-ranged, there was no way-

Short ranged… Radio. Communication. There was something there, niggling in the back of her mind. A memory. Something…

She can feel Birdy pause and shift, his mind also running on overdrive. They shift away from each other, matching expressions of concentration as they think. A spark of hope lighting in their hearts, which began to grow into a fire as Boo watched Birdy bolt from his chair and run to one of the lockers holding the abandoned PDA’s, then skids to a halt and runs back to the table where his own is. 

Picking it up, he taps away at it almost frantically, scrolling through updates and recordings before he finds what he’s looking for and presses one final button, a familiar voice fills the habitat a second later.

_CAPTAIN: Keen! This is Aurora, come in!_

_KEEN: This is Keen, lifepod detached okay, planetfall in 30 seconds!_

_CAPTAIN: The computer has identified a landmass at the attached coordinates! I want you to regroup the crew there!_

_KEEN: Understood, but-_

_CAPTAIN: They are your responsibility now, don't let them down!_

_KEEN: Captain, you need to evacuate!_

_CAPTAIN: Negative, you'll need the ship in one piece if you're going to contact HQ on the long-range. I'm attempting a controlled descent._

_*Explosion aboard the Aurora*_

_KEEN: Captain?!_

_*Static*_

There’s silence as the pair stare at the PDA, still their only real source of light -though Boo doesn’t need it- but the feeling of excitement filling the space between them at the prospect of being able to do something, of being able to save people, gives them a sense of purpose they hadn’t really had before. This is something beyond themselves, something they can control- they know they can change this.

“Long-range.” He says, and Boo can feel her cheeks beginning to ache from how much she’s smiling right now. Her mind, already kicking into high gear, began running through everything they’ll need to get to the Aurora- they’ll need to repair the engines, and find a way in, and need to navigate a path to the long-range comms. Hell, they’ll need to do a lot. They are going to need food, and a lot of water, and likely fire extinguishers. 

“Our best point of entry will be the front, it’s the most damaged so there should be some way to get in from there. There will likely be another monster thing- we really need to figure out a name for them, but even with just our sea glides we should be able to outmaneuver and outrun it if we need to. We need radiation suits, repair tools, batteries just in case, though there should be plenty on the ship itself…” She grabs her own PDA, writing down a new list even as she continued to mutter to herself.

“We’re not going anywhere near the back end of the ship, right?”

“You could not pay me to go anywhere near it,” She confirms, letting his relief wash over her for a moment before refocusing. “Do we have the resources to make fire extinguishers?” She asked, double-checking her list before continuing on. Birdy started moving, then there was a bang, a loud curse, and then a crashing sound, followed by more cursing.

Looking up, and then down, she saw that Birdy had tripped in his haste. It didn’t help that it was still dark. With a huff of laughter, she closed her eyes and commanded, “Habitat, lights on!” and after a few seconds, peeked one of her eyes open to test how her eyes adjusted, and quickly closed it again. While it wasn’t as bad as the first time, it still wasn’t great.

“Thanks,” Birdy said, sounding like he was standing up and fixing the furniture, “You good?” He asked, not moving by the sounds of it. She waved him away, leaning back in her chair a little.

“Good, might take half a min to adjust,” Boo assured him, and with a hum, he left to go check their resources, and likely their gear and supplies. With luck, there would be rations and water in and around the Aurora, along with batteries and power cells, but Boo wasn’t in the habit of leaving things to chance. So they would go in with the expectation of everything being dangerous and near-impossible. She would make sure they get back from this no matter what. None of them are dying, not them, and not the people of the Sunbeam.

When she tried again, a few seconds later, she found the lights weren’t so bad. She still needed to squint a little, but at least she could see now!

As she turned in her chair, intent on getting up and joining Birdy so she could start checking things off her list even as she mentally added to it, she noticed that the Radio’s signal light was still flashing slowly. Boo couldn’t help but wonder if another transmission had been sent from the Sunbeam, or even another nearby ship, as unlikely as it was. Still, it’s possible that such a transmission could give them an ETA for the Sunbeam and, therefore, a timeline for when they needed to get things done.

As she wandered towards the radio, she added making and manually dismantling at least two radios onto the list. They don’t know what kind of state the long-range comms will be in, plus they may need the extra parts to record and send out their message.

“Hey, Birdy!” She called, “I’m gonna play the other transmissions, there might be more messages from the Sunbeam.” Plus they really should listen to all the signals, they owed the dead that much- to listen to what could be their final words.

“‘Kay! Gimme a sec!” There was some noise, and then rapid steps. A few moments later, Birdy entered the room holding his own PDA. Clearly he had been taking notes. He stood by her side, close enough for their arms to brush, and with a look full of mourning, concern, understanding and so much more that she somehow understood, he pressed the button.

**_"▀▖┗▛Nine new biological subjects designated. Mode ▄▖▜▚┣: hunting/analyzing._ **

**_Sharing subject locations with other agents."_ **

Hairs stood on end as Boo tensed her shoulders, electric ice skittering up her spine and spreading out like hands through her insides, acid filled her veins, and she felt a horrible sense of dread settle into her gut like hot lead. Birdy wasn’t much better, he wasn’t even breathing once the recording finished.

Boo pressed up against his side, desperate for something to chase the fear that filled her lungs and clogged up her throat, choking her and making it hard to breathe. Icey panic flushing the acid from her veins. 

Birdy responded instantly, holding her tight and burying his face in her hair as he gave a shuddering breath. She returned the embrace, holding him as tightly as she could, trying to give a fraction of comfort to him as he gave to her. Already the panic that threatened to send her spiraling was receding, and she could feel Birdy beginning to relax from the tense, fight-or-flight state he had been in.

“What the fuck was that?” Birdy whispered harshly, “Those… those Warpers. There’s no way a creature could _evolve_ to teleport like it did…” Realisation hit them both like a crashfish, and she shuddered at the thought, but it was the only possible way.

“Those things aren’t natural. They’re machines- they were made. And they’re hunting us.” She pulled back, just enough to look up at Birdy, and saw the rage and grief in his eyes. So he had come to the same conclusion then.

The Warpers were the main reason they didn’t find any other survivors. They had killed them when the planet didn’t.

There was nothing she could say to help him, nothing to make this knowledge make it hurt any less. She closed her eyes, and offered up a small prayer to the lost. Even if Boo didn’t really believe in all that, she did believe that, maybe, there was something after. Not the paradise that Alterra believers preached, but something else. What, even she’s not sure, but she hopes that those lost have found happiness wherever they are now.

“Birdy.” She calls gently, her hand coming up to cup his cheek and to make sure he was seeing her, “We’ll take the time to mourn them later. I know it sounds cruel, but if we don’t act now we may have to mourn many more. We’ll hold a memorial, I think, or something- I don’t know. But we can’t let this beat us. Nothing on this planet can beat us. No monsters, no disease, no _whatever the fuck_ the warpers are. Nothing. I promise you.” She didn’t know where this conviction came from, all Boo knew is that she was sick and tired of all this death. Of people constantly dying around them and them being powerless to help, only learning of it after the fact.

No more. This time, they can do something. This time, they will do something. They’ll save them, stop this tragedy from happening. They just need to focus. One step at a time. One foot in front of the other.

Birdy leaned into her hand, his own covering hers as he took a long, deep breath, and then let it out. He looked at her with something akin to amazement, and she pushed down the ridiculous joy that rose up at the sight of it. Focus, woman!

“Okay.”

“Okay?”

“Okay. The Aurora, long-range comms, then a memorial for the lost.” He closed his eyes, and Boo could feel the pain he was in, and she hated how familiar it was at this point. How they had come to expect it at every turn, for it to raise its ugly head and remind them of everything -everyone- they have lost and what they risk to lose.

They held each other for a few more long, comforting moments. Then, they stepped back and turned their backs on the radio, a silent agreement that they won’t listen to anything else until after the mission. It was for the best, they needed to focus, and while it had been horrible that transmission had given them an added drive. Because if anyone on the Sunbeam survived, then they would have to face the Warpers as well, and that was a fate they wouldn’t wish on anyone.

* * *

_There was a moment of silence in the room, Birdy and Boo not uttering a single word as they let that playback sink in for anyone who might be hearing this._

_“Yeah, that’s what we’ve up against. Turns out, we’re being hunted by the Warpers on this forsaken ocean world.” Birdy commented first, his fist clenched in view of the screen as he spoke, “It’s why all the other pods have been empty, they were tracked, hunted, and killed, and by the sounds of it, because they were infected.”_

_“It’s why the things were so agro with us, we’re infected too.” Boo looked at Birdy, keeping an eye on his temperament with this whole Warper shtick. She knew how much he hated these things. “Every since we first discovered we were infected, we’ve been spotting these Warpers stalking us, always in the distance, waiting-”_

_“Well next time they show up, I’ll have a plan ready for them.” Birdy interrupted her, his eyes hardening as he stared off-screen._

_Annnndddd that is why she was going to have to keep an eye on him, calm him down, whatever it took for him to not do something stupid._

_Then again, he was stupid. It was in his nature._

_“We’ll deal with them, in time.” Birdy looked toward Boo as she spoke, “We’re gonna go deep-sea diving, find a cure for this virus, and_ **_then_ ** _deal with the Warpers. Permanently.”_

_She sighed before continuing, “But first we’ll have to wait and see about this Sunbeam situation, that takes priority at the moment.” Birdy nodded slowly in agreement, as she knew he would._

_He wasn’t about to risk more lives for the sake of revenge against those squid bastards. Boo could have sworn she heard him mutter something along the lines of ‘evil squid boi’ or something._

_Kinda adorable to see him make an enemy, in a weird way…_

_“We’re going to the Aurora soon, aren’t we?” Birdy asked, but she knew he didn’t really need an answer. “The long-range communication systems on the Aurora might give us the opportunity to contact the Sunbeam. Hopefully, before the planetary defense system can go off.”_

_“We’ll go at first light tomorrow. No point wasting time, we have a lot of ground to cover in search of anything of use.”_

_“The seamoth bay may be of use to us, it’s in the bowels of the ship so it likely survived the impact.” Birdy made a valid point there, the cargo hold up there might be something of value or importance to them._

_“Prawns suits, or at least parts of them, and possible food or equipment.” Boo smiled, “Yeah, you certainly need your prawn suit if you’re gonna beat this ocean back with your bare hands.”_

_Birdy smirked playfully as her, “I’m ready to throw hands with anything in this forsaken sea!” Birdy raised his fists like that of a boxer, swaying slightly as if mimicking the movement._

_“Plan to go toe-to-toe with a Reaper then?”_

_“Give me a prawn suit and I’ll suplex the thing.”_

_Boo rolled her eyes, although she knew he was playing with her she could also picture him being stupid enough to try it. Well, if they weren’t in a survival situation as they were, he’d be throwing himself at these things and fighting them head-on._

_She had no doubts about that._

_“We’ll use our newly made radiation suits, and enter the Aurora from the front. That’s probably our best bet of getting in since the entire front section is open and accessible.” Boo re-directed their talk to a more serious topic._

_Birdys’ brow furrowed, “We’ll have to dodge the Reaper.”_

_“Yeah, but as long as it isn’t the one near the back I couldn’t care less about that.”_

_Now it was Birdys’ turn to roll his eyes, sure they’d named the one at the back The Bastard, they were both equally dangerous regardless. They were both Reaper leviathans for christ’s sake!_

_“I think it’s time we call it here.” Birdys’ eyes glanced at his still recording PDA as he spoke._

_Boo smiled, “Agreed.”_

_Faster than Birdy had expected, she snatched his PDA from him and held it up high, above her as the screen looked down at her face as she looked up at it._

_“This is the dynamic duo, Birdy and Boo, signing off!” Boo sang out._

_In the background, one could see Birdy getting up as if to chase her. A faint sound of ‘Oi!’ coming from him, with him looking as if he was about to jump her before the screen went black._

* * *

The radiation suits, Birdy decided, were _weird_. He knew they would help, but they felt so weird against his skin. He eyed Boo, watching as she shifted one way, then the other, before rolling her shoulders and then shouldering her air tank. She clearly wasn’t having the same issues, or at least wasn’t showing any signs of it beyond a quick adjustment. They had been wearing the standard suits for so long, they had gotten used to them. Like a second skin. 

Ironic given the fact he had a sneaking suspicion as to why it was more troubling for him. 

Perhaps, he figured, it had something to do with his new skin, which was firmer, less elastic and yielding like a regular human, maybe now his sense of touch was changing too, to accommodate the changes in his body. He was now _literally_ thick-skinned. He sighed, but followed after Boo as she made her way to the hatch, his own gear and supplies prepped and ready and checked over a dozen times. The pair wanted to leave as little to chance as they could, so they did everything they could to ensure this mission would be a success. Most people would think the sheer amount of items they were carrying was overkill, and while they certainly used up most of their inventory space, neither were really upset over the possibility of leaving things behind as long as they got out of there alive and with the message playing on repeat.

Heading to their seamoth’s, they gave each other a thumbs-up and took the Mushroom Forest Route to the Aurora. It would lead them to the front of the ship, there were barely any predators, and it gave them plenty of cover for the predators that _were_ out and about. They were still careful, making sure nothing tried to sneak up on them and keeping an eye out for the dreaded serpentine shape that heralded what they had decided to call a Reaper. It was certainly befitting.

Once they were close enough, they made a beeline for the side of the Aurora, rocks and large tube corals offering a good hiding place for their vehicles, and also a good vantage point to see the Reaper that was patrolling the front of the Aurora. Deep enough that it shouldn’t chase them, but they both remember the Bastard at the back, and neither were keen on taking the chances. So, they stayed as close to the surface and the side of the Aurora as they could.

As they slipped between the beams of the damaged ship, he couldn’t help how strange it felt. Like slipping between the bones of a giant skeleton. Not too long ago, the open space he was swimming through had been solid floors and walls, full of technology and people and life. It was Alterra so it wasn’t exactly a party, but there had been conversations, jokes, laughter, fights. Now rendered to nothing but a memory and a once-been. How many people had survived the crash? How many people had managed to find or make radiation suits before it killed them? How many had heard the countdown, trying desperately to fix the engines, save the Aurora, save themselves and their friends, colleagues, partners? How many had stood where he now floated?

A hand gripped his wrist, and with a start, he saw Boo- it was harder to see her face due to the visor being tinted, but he could imagine the look of concern. He could feel it from her, at least, that mix of understanding and worry. She felt the loss too, perhaps less keenly than he did, perhaps she was more detached or was focusing on something else, keeping her emotions and thoughts in check. He didn’t know how she did it, and he feels foolish for cursing it before because he knows that her calm head had helped him through so much. The same way he kept her from disconnecting from her emotions entirely, how he drew smiles and laughter, and made her face what she was feeling like she often did when she didn’t want to deal emotional hurt.

He let her pull him along, his eyes turning to the great blue expanse that could be their doom and salvation. He saw the silhouette of the Reaper, but it was far enough away that he didn’t even hear the roars that signaled it had sensed prey had wandered into its patrol zone. Still, he kept turning back, to check, to make sure something wasn’t going to appear out of the ether and come after them.

It took a while, a stress-filled long while that felt like hours but was only a few minutes at most, but they found a sort of ramp of metal that let them get out of the water. 

“Oh fuck, nope.” He heard Boo’s voice crackle through their radio, and she turned to place her hands on his shoulders and started pushing him back towards the water. “Nope. Nope. Not dealing with this. No. Thank. You.”

“Boo!” He laughed as he looked over her shoulder and saw the crawlers skittering about. “There’s not that many! Come on!”

“There’s enough!” She spat, though she did stop pushing him, “There’s always more of them. No matter how many there are, how many you kill, there is always more waiting for you.”

“I’m pretty sure you're risking ecological balance when you go on a crawly killing spree.” He said idly, stepping around her and grabbing her hand to pull her along. “Though I think the ones on the Floating Island have learned to avoid you, you really could just run away from them or use the cannon on them.”

“And drain perfectly good batteries when kicking them is much more satisfying?” She asked, moving closer to him when she spotted another one off to the side, her grip on his hand almost bruising. 

Despite the pain, he did enjoy holding her hand in such a manner, it was endearing. 

_Focus._

“You can be so mean sometimes, you know that?” He teased, picking up the pace when he heard one of them get a little too close. “This is why creatures go extinct.” He had to agree though. While using the cannon would be the best way to deal with them, she did have a point about draining batteries. It would be best just to avoid them as best they can rather than risk wasting time and resources on fighting what looks like a hoard of cave crawlers.

They steadily made their way up, dodging any crawlers that were particularly daring, and investigating the odd container they could find. 

Food, water, medkits, all good supplies. Although Birdy doubted Boo was in the mood to eat considering she was surrounded by her most despised enemy, they could afford to stay here for some time nonetheless. 

When they reached what looked like a deadend, Birdy was disappointed, but not really surprised. Still, they looked around, hoping they could find a broken door or move a piece of debris that would lead inside. When he spotted the, for lack of a better word, bridge of twisted metal, he risked shuffling across it, hoping to find a good angle to try and spot a way in. Boo was watching from the edge, not trusting the way it creaked and groaned, and even from here he could see how tense she was; muscles pulled taut and ready to spring into action at the slightest sign of something going wrong.

Thankfully, it held, and as he followed the crooked curve of the bridge, he caught sight of the other side of what they thought had been the deadend. A way inside! 

“Boo! I see a way in!” He called, waving her over before moving on ahead. Even from here, he could hear her unhappy groan as she began to edge her way across as quickly as she could, glancing down and around her. When she finally got to the other side, Birdy held out his hand for her to grab, which she did, and pull her onto slightly more solid ground. The small, thankful, smile she sent up to him made his heart flutter in his chest and he gave her hand a squeeze before he stepped away to lead them towards the door.

It was currently covered in fire, but that’s what the fire extinguishers were for. They made short work of it, and slipped through.

The biggest thing that hit Birdy, was the _heat_. It was like a living thing inside the Aurora, a constant pressure that made it harder to breathe even through the radiation suit and his own evolved toughness. He saw Boo step forward at his side, hand grazing his arm as she passed, and strode forward as she looked around. That wasn’t really surprising, she was always more comfortable with warmer temperatures, so she wouldn’t be as affected by the heat as he was. Together they moved forward, hanging a right at the first interval and into the Administration Office -after dealing with the fire there as well- and taking what they could. Data, anything scannable, and the poster.

“Really?” Boo asked, though judging by the amusement in her voice, she was only teasing. He shrugged as he rolled it up and put it away.

“I always wanted to collect the set, but they were so damn expensive.” He said, heading back to the door. Boo made a noise of agreement and followed after him. They headed to the Cargo Bay, and after dealing with the large sealed crates in the way, punched in the code that they had picked up from the Admin Office and continued on.

To be honest, things went by quickly as they explored the wreck, it was fairly straightforward as they tried to overlay their memories of the Aurora with what it has become, navigating their way through fire and floods, and the odd Biter. Well, Boo had to deal with the Biters, though he did get shocked by a frayed powerline. Once Boo was sure he wasn’t hurt too bad, she laughed at him!

“You jumped like a frightened squirrel! It was funny!” She defended, “If it makes you feel better, I’ll cook next time it’s your turn.” She soothed, which made him feel better, but then she ruined it with a “Now stop pouting, I can see it through your visor.”

“It’s tinted! And I am not pouting!” He argued, reaching for her to get revenge. He would tickle her or something! Unfortunately, she saw him coming and danced out of his reach with a laugh.

“Methinks you are~” she sang, continuing down the hall and towards another room. It turned out to be a locker room. He saw the way she froze when they entered, and like that the good mood vanished, replaced with concern.

“Boo?” He asked quietly, and she startled a little, before swimming forward. She moved to one of the lockers near the far corner of the room, ignoring all the crates and loot and everything that was lying around.

Her hand came to rest against the closed door, “This was my locker.” She stated simply, pulling it open and rummaging through it. Birdy wanted to hold her close, but he knew she needed space. So, while she sorted through her locker and everything else going through her head, he went about picking up everything in the room and scanning whatever he could. Boo went through things quietly, usually, and that included grief and pain. When she was ready, she would turn to him, and he would be there. He always will be. The same as she will always be there for him.

After they backtracked a little to refill their air supply, they headed deeper into the belly of the beast that was the Aurora. It didn’t take them much longer to get to the Drive Core room, focused as they were to get there above everything else. He was thankful the room wasn’t completely submerged, it would certainly make things easier without having to worry about drowning so much. Looking into the water, he saw little shapes moving, and heaved an exasperated sigh.

“There are bleeders in the water.” He said flatly, because of course there were. He watched Boo lean over the platform slightly to observe the creatures before leaning back with an affirmative hum. 

Then, she slapped him on his back and cheerily stated, “Well, have fun with that!” And turned to the walkway and headed towards the four damaged generators.

“Wait, what?” He asked, well demanded, as he followed after her.

“You’re the one with tough skin, they probably won’t be able to get through your hide, so you’re the best suited for the job!” Boo explained, far too chipper at the prospect of him getting bled dry by the little buggers.

“‘Probably’ does not sound very reassuring!” He argued, and Boo paused to look at him. Though he couldn’t see much due to the tint of the visor.

“Would you rather I go in?” She asked sweetly, innocently, and his brain immediately rejected the idea. That pool was full of the little bleeders and he was better suited-

“Are you using my protective nature to get out of going into the water?” He asked, incredulous and -much to his chagrin- impressed. She gave a dramatic gasp, hand moving to cover her heart.

“No! Of course not! Does that sound like something I would do, Birdy?”

“Yes.” He said without any hint of remorse or hesitation. He could feel Boo smiling before she threw her head back and _cackled_ , delighted. Should he be surprised? 

“If you’re too scared to go in, I’ll go in and repair the submerged parts and you can stay up here and fix these ones, all safe and sound.” She teased, and he gave out a surprised laugh. She knew what that would do to him, he was foolishly brave but he wasn’t stupid, mostly. He’d do it if you tried to call him out on it. 

Boo knew how to push his buttons. 

“Oh, _come on!_ Really? That’s just childish.” He cried, but turned to the water nonetheless. “You owe me for this!”

“If you actually get hurt, I’ll give you a shoulder rub.” She promised, and headed off to go repair the breaks above the water. 

“I’ll hold you to that!” He said to her back, and then jumped in. Not wanting to get bitten either way, he headed straight for the nearest break. He went through the first three with no issues, but as he was finishing up the fourth-

“Ow!” He bit out as he felt a spike of pain, like a sharp pinch, in his arm. Looking, he saw a bleeder, and figured it must have been there for a while. With a muffled curse he grabbed his knife and cut the thing away.

“Are you okay?” He heard Boo over the radio, sounding concerned. He looked up, and saw her leaning over the broken railing. He could tell she was ready to dive in, bleeders be damned, to make sure he was alright.

“I’m fine. Turns out bleeders are stubborn and they will dig in until they get what they want. Looks like you owe me a shoulder rub!” He laughed as he finished off repairing one tear and heading towards the next.

“Are you sure? I don’t see any blood.” She said simply, following him as best she could on the walkways. 

“You said hurt, not injured! It counts!” He said triumphantly, “It kinda felt like a nasty pinch, they’re definitely struggling to get through.” 

“Well, I’m glad you’re relatively safe from them. Don’t let them hang on too long, then.”

“I won’t!”

“...”

“What?”

“Check your leg.”

“... Oh.” He said, staring at the three - _three!_ \- bleeders that were hanging off his right leg. With a few quick swipes, he got them off, but he could feel the buzz of Boo’s mirth under his skin. 

After that, quick work was made of the repairs, though the constant stopping to make sure he wasn’t carrying any stowaways was tedious, and hearing the PDA announce _‘Drive core breach sealed. Radiation levels decreasing.’_ was music to his ears, and he immediately swam to the surface. Boo was waiting, helmet off, with a handheld out for him, which he happily took.

With a grin, she held up a module, and Birdy didn’t need to guess what it was. With a quick look at his PDA, he saw a new blueprint was available. An efficiency module for the Cyclops! Nice!

“I have no idea how it survived the blast, but at this point, I also don’t care.” She said happily, putting it away before she put her helmet back on. Together, they left the Drive Core room and began exploring the Aurora again.

Now that the Aurora wasn’t shaking, which had been unsettling, but now he’s not sure this eerie stillness is much better. The fires and sparks from broken wires, the odd flickering lights dotted about, it all made shadows dance about. Gave memories shape and form. Try as he might, he couldn’t stop seeing ghosts.

When they stepped into the Prawn Suit Bay, he had to stop and put his hands over his ears as fires roared- people running, screaming, could be heard over the flames and he remembered when things weren’t all smoke and fire and silence. When he would cut through this very room to get to Ozzie’s cafe faster, so he wouldn’t be late to meet with his friends and so he could save a seat for Boo because she was always late since she ‘Had to clean up others messes’ all the time.

He remembered how Jack would always flirt with Ozzie, and how Sarah would be practically glued to her PDA messaging her partners because they kept getting conflicting shifts. Lucas and Amy, always bickering and laughing and they would team up again Boo and him in games all the time. Except when the guys from the Graveyard Shift were involved, then they always teamed up against those posers and they would have to hold Amy back because she always had such a short temper-

He gasped, his lungs screaming for air and it was hot and searing and didn’t have nearly enough oxygen even though he had an air tank- why did he have an air tank? Because everything was flooded and on fire and everyone was dead.

God, everyone was screaming. So, _so loud._

His helmet was ripped off. The heat hitting his face directly. Cool hands touched his face and made him look up. Familiar eyes stared back at him, multi-coloured and full of worry and grief all its own yet all the same as his own. 

_‘Come back to me, Birdy. Come back. Please.’_ The words flitted across his mind, not his own thoughts, from somewhere beyond yet so close it was familiar. Like a song you haven’t heard in a long time. Known and new all at once, infinitely comforting, and encompassing all he loved.

 _‘I can’t do this without you. I can’t bear to lose you too. I can’t lose anyone else. Please, please come back to me. Selfish as it is, I can’t stand to see you like this, please.’_ The words came again, like fresh air clearing out the muggy fog he had been caught in. He blinked away the remaining fog, and saw Boo. Annabel. His Boo. Tears streaming down her face, her back to the fire, focused on him. Holding him together while he fell apart and came back together again.

 _‘I’m fine.’_ He wanted to say, but that was a lie and wouldn’t bring her the comfort she needed, and wouldn’t bring him anything either. 

_‘I’m back’_ He tried to say, but his mouth wouldn’t move, his voice wouldn’t work. _‘I’m here. I’m never leaving. It’s okay. It’s okay.’_ He tried to comfort her, squeezing her wrist and hoping he got the message across somehow. The way her eyes softened and her entire countenance eased, relief coming off her in waves, he knew she got the message. Enough hadn’t been lost in translation. It reached her. Same way she reached him. Every time.

They put their helmets back on, and doused the flames. They went through two extinguishers each, but they cleared away the fire and were able to move the crates and boxes that littered the stairs.

Birdy cheered when he finished scanning the Prawn Suits, Boo laughed along as he spun her around singing ‘We got the Prawn Suits!’ like a kid. He’s pretty sure they already have the components needed to make at least one, so he’s sure they’ll be able to start exploring more of the risky area’s soon.

“Okay! Okay! Settle down!” She was still giggling when he stopped spinning them around, and headed up the stairs. 

They kept up the cheer even when they came to Ozzie’s cafe, Boo even bringing up the arm wrestling match that ‘all you meatheads did’ when they were trying to settle shift disagreements. Not very ‘Alterra’ of them, but it lasted for three days and was wonderfully entertaining.

“I still say Stevenson cheated.” Birdy said as he watched Boo scan a few more things, he had already checked behind the counter and hadn’t found much. She glanced at him and he could feel her smile from across the room. 

“Oh, he did. I think he put some lubricant stuff on the table. One of the cans had been misplaced during the competition that ‘magically’ reappeared once it was over.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, but I wasn’t part of the competition and bringing it up after the win felt a little…?”

“No, no, I get it. Plus it didn’t matter since my team won in the end.” Birdy grinned, and with a laugh the pair continued on. Going to rooms, talking about what they remember -Birdy knew those two girls had broken up!- and while they did go quiet a few times when memories threatened to drag them down, they also remained stubbornly cheerful. They couldn’t afford to have any more breakdowns, so anytime either one risked falling, the other would pull them back.

They reached Keen’s room, and quietly they took what they needed and everything that wasn’t nailed down. They also took the time to sit down and rest a little. Drinking their water and eating their rations.

“We’re a little more than halfway through our rations.” Birdy commented, earning a hum of acknowledgement from Boo. He watched her rifle through her own inventory and pull out another bottle of water- the heat was beginning to wear on her too- or maybe it was everything else.

“Little less than half our water, too.” She added idly, passing the water to him after taking a long swig herself. “We’ll go through the rooms a little quicker. Finish here, get to the bridge, set up the transmission, explore what we can and then get out. I don’t want to come here again.” She admitted easily, and he understood that. The longer they stayed here, the more ghosts seemed to appear, dragging them into memories and ‘what if’s that didn’t do anything but cause more heartache. 

“Alright. Sounds like a plan.” Birdy said, pushing himself to his feet and offering her his hand. With a smile that he could feel in his heart, she grabbed his hand and hauled herself up.

The captains room was bigger than the others, as to be expected, and even had collectibles! Not just any, either, limited edition that was worth over a month's wages, too! Damn, he didn’t know leading Alterra ships paid so well. Maybe he should have tried it out…

Nah, that would’ve meant going to the Academy of Astronautical Endeavors. No way he could afford that, plus it would mean being away from Boo for four-to-six years. The payoff would not be worth it.

“Hey, there’s a rocket ship blueprint here!” Boo called out, garnering his attention from his thoughts and the fancy Aurora model.

“Oh, yeah?” he asked, coming to stand behind her and look over her shoulder. She shifted to better let him see.

“Yeah. When we beat the disease and shut down the stupid gun, we can get off this planet on our own!” She flashed a smile his way, before focusing back on the terminal and her PDA, she hummed a bit before letting out a light ‘tsk’. “Well, we can’t send the transmission from here. The terminal is connected to the bridge, not the long-range comms, so while anything picked up from the bridge gets sent down here, and commands can be sent up, we can’t send a transmission from here and then have it go through the bridge to the comms. We have to actually be there.”

“And the bridge is in the uppermost part of the ship…” Birdy sighed, sharing in her frustration and anxiety. “It was still intact when we got here. It clearly survived the crash, but I don’t think the elevators are going to be functioning.” He took off his helmet -Boo had already removed hers at some point, probably during his introspection- and ran his fingers through his hair, thinking. “We could head back to the Prawn Suit Bay, we can use those crates to get up to the security platform there, and that might let us get at least part of the way.”

“I suppose, the security routes are mostly elevators, aren’t they?” She asked, downloading all data she could from the terminal.

“For areas that are far apart, like the zero-grav gym and the main storage holds, but we also have ladders in the case of power failure or elevators have a total system shutdown.” He saw Boo’s hazel eyes flash in recognition, no doubt remembering that time some pirates had hijacked an Alterra vessel and had taken over the elevator system to keep security and hostages from escaping. There had been some serious design overhauls in all ships after that.

“Alright then! I’m done here. Let’s go!”

“Yes ma’am.” He grinned down at her and, once they did a quick double-check to make sure they hadn’t missed anything or any hallways or rooms, they hurried back to the bay and spent the next thirty or so minutes trying to get the boxes in the right position and stacked on top each other in a way that would let them climb up.

They used up four batteries, each, but they got it. Lucky they were together, he doesn’t think either of them would have gotten up on their own. 

They had to pry the door open, as while the door flashed green, it refused to actually open. Still, they got it open, and the hallways that were specifically for security personnel were surprisingly clear of… anything. They had been kept sparse to avoid risking trips or clutters or anything that could hinder security getting where it needed to be, but beyond some fires and sparking wires there wasn’t _anything_. Just empty hallways. Routes he had taken so many times he could take them in his sleep, and yet, in this moment, they seemed so… alien. Foreboding. 

The hand at his back steadied him. Boo had never been in this part of the ship, he recalled, and while Alterra didn’t allow excessive design choices, they at least allowed decor of some kind in most spaces, so seeing hallways completely devoid of even a simple bench seat or poster must be a bit more unsettling for her. That simple touch was as much a comfort for him as it was for her, and he took strength in knowing that they could rely on each other for such a small thing without even needing to ask.

They made it to the elevators, and the adjacent ladders. He sent a small prayer to… whoever or whatever might be listening, that there wouldn’t be too much damage. 

“You know how you love those climbing obstacles in the gyms and rec rooms?” He asked, making his way up the first set of bars.

“Yeah?” Boo called up, following shortly after him.

“Good thing you do, cause this is gonna take a while.” He heard a sigh below him, a mutter that sounded a lot like ‘that sounds par for the course with us’ and he felt himself grinning.

It did take a while. A long while. They had to stop twice to let their limbs rest before continuing on, but by god, they reached the bridge.

It was… surprisingly undamaged. Well, there was certainly damage. The windows were cracked or shattered, one section of stations were utterly destroyed, a good portion of the ceiling was exposed and the area where the elevators were meant to was… not there. But the main floor and rest of the stations and terminals were surprisingly intact.

“Views’ nice.” He heard Boo say, and turned to see her staring out one of the nearby windows- well, its frame at least, as the entire section of reinforced glass is completely gone beyond a few stubborn pieces still clinging to the frame. 

It was a nice view. They could see the islands from here, apparently the haze-field only working when near water-level, no mirage to hide them. They looked so small all the way up here. He turned his eyes to the horizon, and saw nothing but endless blue- both sky and sea. The real deviance was the giant moon that orbited the planet, adding a splash of colour to an otherwise monochrome-blue palat. 

Looking at it from up here, it looks peaceful, you would never guess what lies beneath the waves.

“It does. Thinking of building a habitat up here?” That earned him a smack, and he groaned theatrically, “Ow… so mean!” He complained, rubbing his arm even though he had barely felt it. He could feel the roll of her eyes, and she didn’t even deign him with a glance as she turned away from the window and moved deeper in the room.

The bridge was circular in design, and it was easy to locate where the communication station was. Thankfully it wasn’t anywhere near where the still smoking wreck of the other station was. Idly, he wondered what had happened to the captain, as he had gone down with the ship.

He instantly regretted the thought when he caught a flash of brown lining the edge of a shattered window. Swallowing, he turned away and focused on helping Boo set up the radio signal. They had uploaded one of the blank PDA’s they had found with a repeating recording of their warning, and now they needed to connect it with the long-range comms. The power of the PDA should keep it going for months alone, and the power from the Aurora should keep it going for years. They couldn’t just link the two wirelessly, since they couldn’t trust the state of the comms, the station terminal, or the ship itself.

He lost track of time after the twenty minute marker, as they had to take off the paneling of the terminal and start connecting wires. They are lucky they took apart those extra radio’s, otherwise they may not have been able to properly connect the PDA. At some point it got dark, but it was done. They had connected it, and the message was ready to be sent.

“Here’s hoping. Ready?” Boo asked, looking up at him with nervousness in every line of her expression. She was only illuminated by the light of the PDA, but that wasn’t enough to completely offset the bioluminescence that he was quickly coming to associate with her. He wonders if he should be concerned with how okay he was with their very biology being shifted and changed by this planet, but he had to admit- she looked good with it.

Realising he was staring, he took a deep breath and nodded. “Ready. Let’s do this.” 

She moved closer to him, and offered the screen to him. She wanted him to push the button that would play the repeating message. He felt a wave of gratitude and affection for her. She knew how much this meant to him, more than her they could both admit, and having this little bit of control- this power to save somebody for once, was… god, it meant so much to him.

Without taking the PDA from her, he shifted from his sitting position to lean against her and raised his hand to the glowing blue screen.

He pushed play.

There was a long silence, feeling both a weight lift and a new one settle all at once. It was done, but did it work?

At once, both their PDA’s alerted them to a new radio transmission. They looked at each other, and questions flew between them.

Did it work? Was this their message? Was it a new message from the Sunbeam? From the warpers or a life pod or something else entirely? Could they leave right now and check? Could they afford to? Did they want to and risk coming back? What about the other rooms they haven’t explored?

Silently, they agreed to wait. They didn’t want to come back to the Aurora unless they needed to, so they would stay the night here, finish exploring tomorrow morning, and then head back. God, he hoped it worked. They needed this to work. They needed this victory. Just once, _just once_ he wants something to go right, with no caveat or some surprise-horror to make whatever they achieved near worthless under the weight of everything else happening.

Leaning against one of the other terminal stations, pressed against each other, the pair drifted off easily. Exhaustion and everything else making the slip into sleep easy and near-instant. 

_‘I wonder what the dawn will look like from up here?’_ He wondered, nuzzling into Boo’s hair. It hadn’t been washed in weeks, but was still somehow soft- still frizzy, but it wasn’t gross like he expected. Probably all the time they spend in the water lets it stay relatively clean and healthy. His own is probably in a similar state.

 _‘If you wake up early enough, you can take pictures.’_ He heard Boo’s voice whisper through his headspace, and hummed at the idea. It was a good one, and he’ll try to wake up in time. Before he could formulate a proper response, he was asleep.

* * *

Boo wakes up the moment she feels something alight in the back of her mind, and raises her head with open eyes to survey what’s around her. They’re on the bridge, and her muscles are sore and her bones ache and her soul feels like a warzone and a ceasefire all at once. It’s still dark out, she thinks- it’s hard to tell time because she can see in the dark, but the sky is lighter now than when she went to sleep, so it must be morning and nearing daylight hours. 

“Did I wake you?” A quiet voice next to her, and she hums out a small noise that translates roughly to ‘no’ and she tries to bury deeper into the warm shoulder her head is leaning on. She didn’t want to get up just yet, and not having to deal with daylight was a great way to avoid getting up.

“Come on. As cute as you are like this, we should get moving.” She made an unhappy noise, the idea of moving was an abysmal one. Her whole body felt like a lead weight. But, now that she was awake, her thoughts were moving faster and faster as the events of yesterday went through her mind like a recap reel from those old movies. 

With an almighty sigh, she righted herself so Birdy -the horrible morning person that he was- could get up and move towards the windows. She dully remembered something about him taking pictures, but she was still sleepy and didn’t want to think about anything beyond checking the PDA and long-range comms. Then breakfast - _ugh,_ rations for breakfast- and then looting the rest of the Aurora that they could reach. Everything else can wait until she doesn't want to drag Birdy back down and use him as a pillow and space heater.

Well, she usually wants to do that anyway, but right now the urge was particularly strong.

Yawning, she heaved herself into a crouching position, then forced herself to straighten her legs. Lacing her fingers in front of her, she stretched her arms up over her head and bent backwards slightly, her hands settled behind her head as she finished stretching and enjoying the crack and pop of her bones and joints. She yawned, tears springing to the corners of her eyes, and peered over to Birdy. Who was now staring at her with an almost dazed expression. She could practically feel affection flowing from him, and she raised a brow at him as her cheeks began to heat.

“You’re gonna miss the sunrise,” She reminded him, and he spun away with a curse as he fumbled for his PDA. She gave a small sigh of relief, rubbing at her cheek in a vain attempt to push away the blush that no doubt resided over her entire face. It really was ridiculous how easy it was for him to fluster her, and he didn’t even notice! As she moved to check over the comms to make sure the signal was still going out, she wondered if that was a good thing or not.

“Signals’ still going.” She announced, stumbling over her words slightly. She gave another yawn, because goddamn it was too early to be awake right now. Rubbing at her neck, which was stiff and sore, she peered over at her companion and watched him stare out at the horizon with a wondrous expression.

In her personal opinion, no view could match what she was seeing right now. Shoulders loose, stance relaxed and expression eased into something joyful and content, and his hair was nicely tussled. The coming dawn cast a honey-gold light upon him, making his silhouette shine and his whole form light up like one of those gods of old. A god of light and life, all things bright and good in everything. And she, his most devoted worshipper. She was helpless to do otherwise. He brought a warmth to her life she could never live without, not once she had felt it herself, he made it easier to get up and face the trials of the day- both here on this planet, and back with Alterra. There was little she wouldn’t do for him, if only it meant she got to stay by his side. And here, now, seeing him bathed in light and radiating life and pure wonder, she can only think of how lucky she is -even with everything that’s happened- that she got to be by his side this long.

He paused in what he was doing to glance over at her, and Boo quickly looked away as her face heated up. Dammit, she can’t keep letting her thoughts run away on her like that. Especially if what she was suspecting turned out to be true.

“Don’t forget to eat and drink, we have a long day ahead of us.” She announces, moving to do just that. 

“Sure! Just let me get some snapshots…” Birdy trailed off as he looked back to the great views they got from up here. She hummed to let him know she had heard him, and began to nibble on a nutrient block as she thought about where they could reach, safely, and how long it might take. Truthfully, depending on the level of flooding, it could take them the rest of the day, or at least well into the late afternoon. Boo doesn’t like the idea of trying to get back to base in the dark, especially with the Reaper’s patrolling the area, but she also doesn’t like the idea of spending another night here.

She sipped at her water as she turned her eyes back to Birdy, who was beginning to take pictures. She supposed it had gotten light enough for him to take photos now. An unexpected side-effect of her newly acquired night vision was that it was harder for her to keep track of time. She was rather poor at it in general, but now that she didn’t have to work around light-levels, the only thing she really could reliably use to track time was hunger and thirst. She simply kept forgetting to check the sky or her PDA’s clock, and couldn’t even roughly keep track of time. It could be a few minutes, or a whole day, as far she knows.

“Okay! Done!” Boo started and turned to Birdy, who was putting his PDA away and moving to her.

“Did you eat?” She asked, moving to stand and stretch again.

“Yeah, as I took pictures.”

“Drink?”

“Same thing.”

She nodded, and together they headed back down to the main body of the Aurora.

It… was surprisingly uneventful, exploring the rest of the Aurora that they could reach. It all went by in a blur for Boo, honestly. Besides a few highlights, she was tired and drained and wrung out, and she could tell Birdy was feeling it too. Thankfully, whatever they couldn’t take they could afford to leave behind, mostly excess batteries and the like. By the time they had finished searching the available nooks and crannies, they made it back to the front of the ship where they had originally boarded, successfully avoiding the crawlers.

The water was strangely a welcome sight, and the feel of it had her sagging and more falling into the coolness of it rather than properly diving or descending. It seems the heat had even gotten to her, after dealing with it for so long. Judging by the muffled splash and loud sigh, along with the hum of relief sifting through her consciousness, she figured Birdy was even happier than her to be returning to the water.

They beelined it to their seamoth’s, more than ready to get away from the ship and everything near it. They were quiet as they zoomed away, heading straight for home. Between one blink and the next, they were back. It took her a long second to shake herself into something a little more present and aware -and it was a little unsettling how out of it she was, especially with darkness fast approaching, as Birdy had announced when they left the Aurora, that was dangerous- as she exited Martin and followed Birdy’s form to the hatch.

Neither spoke as they all but dumped everything on the floor of the first room they entered, one of the living areas. Birdy at least had the energy to place the Aurora replica on one of the desks, and then started to strip. She was too tired to even appreciate that, which was a clear sign that they were exhausted.

By the time he had finished removing the radiation suit, Boo was already down to just her under-attire of sports bra and comfy shorts. She threw the blankets down the bed and managed to angle her fall so that she, mostly, landed on the far side and only had to perform minimal shuffling to properly get to her side and under the blanket.

There was a bubble of amusement and affection popping through her mind, but she ignored it and instead started pulling the blankets up, holding them up long enough for Birdy to slip (read: Collapse) in next to her. Her eyes mostly closed, she made sure the blankets were tucked around his shoulders, and then let her arm fall around his waist and dragged herself close, burying her face into her chest and sighing as something in her chest began to uncoil and the tension in her muscles finally began to release. Dimly, she felt an arm settle across her shoulder and a warm hand cradle her head, and another one snake under her side and around her own waist. Gentle puffs of air teased her hair, and she idly remembered that she would need to brush it in the morning.

Boo fell asleep between that thought and the next, clinging to the one she trusted most and holding him close, a silent declaration to everything that might think to take him from her. 

Try, and face the death you will suffer for it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, whose having a fun time? I know I am. We are thinking of making the next chapter a sort of filler, full of some lighthearted stuff and little shenanigans. A little break from... everything.
> 
> For those wondering, yes, they spent more than two days in the Aurora, but it was hard to track time in the Aurora and their attention kept getting dragged this way and that. So, yeah, they definitely had a rough time of it.
> 
> Massive props and thanks to Alcatraz, who helped majorly with figuring out what the hell we were gonna do with this chapter! Hope y'all enjoyed this monster of a chapter!


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